How to Talk About Pro-Choice Beliefs with Your Friends and Family

As a young, idealistic liberal, I have this crazy belief that by sharing my values with others, I can actually change the world. That may be a slight over-simplification, but I really believe that the way to change hearts and minds on key social issues is to have meaningful, personal interactions with those you want to change. Recently, I attended a training session offered by my local NARAL chapter about how to share your pro-choice beliefs with others. I felt like the training was really good so I wanted to share what I learned.

Although abortion is a "hot-button" issue for many people, there is a lot of common ground for most people when it comes to how abortion should be regulated in the United States. Just because someone personally disagrees with abortion doesn't mean they aren't pro-choice, and finding the common group is the key to turning the conversation from a supposed moral issue to one of personal choice. The common ground for most individuals on the issue of abortion lies with "the 3 P's":

1) Politicians - The vast majority of Americans believe that politicians shouldn't interfere with private medical decisions, and this is exactly what laws that restrict access to birth control and abortion do. Although an individual may not personally choose abortion, most people would not want someone else or the government making that decision for them. When people realize that restrictive abortion laws take away a woman's right to make a private medical decision, they often come to the awareness that they are a lot more "pro-choice" than they first realized.

2) Privacy - Americans believe strongly that everyone has a fundamental right to privacy, yet many anti-choice laws strip this privacy away from women and make a public policy out of a private medical issue. From laws requiring parental or partner notification to mandatory waiting periods, women's privacy is being compromised for political gain. Again, someone may personally be against abortion but feel very strongly that women should have a basic level of privacy when making serious medical decisions. If you believe in privacy, chances are you're pro-choice.

3) Prevention - Pro-life and pro-choice people alike can agree that the best course of action is to prevent abortions in the first place. The best way to prevent abortions is to provide medically accurate, age-appropriate sex education to our students and making sure they have access to the birth control and reproductive health services that they need. If we're serious about preventing abortions, we need to be serious about reforming our nations antiquated sex education policies. This, too, is an area where you'll find a lot of common ground with pro-life individuals.

The most important thing is to keep talking about your pro-choice values with your friends and loved ones. Sometimes, it might take a while for the message to "click," but you won't have any chance at all if you don't keep the conversation going. For more information about talking about your pro-choice beliefs, along with the latest news updates, be sure to visit the NARAL website listed in the resources section.