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Hank Unplugged: Essential Christian Conversations

How to Become a Pro-Life Advocate: Discussing Abortion w/Frederica Mathewes-Green (Encore Release)

Hank Unplugged: Essential Christian Conversations

The Christian Research Institute

Education, Religion & Spirituality, Society & Culture

5 • 791 Ratings

🗓️ 24 June 2022

⏱️ 108 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The U.S. Supreme Court has voted to overturn Roe v. Wade in a 5-4 decision. In light of the Supreme Court ruling, we would like to present an encore presentation of Hank Hanegraaff’s conversation with Frederica Mathewes-Green on how she went from being a fierce advocate for abortion to becoming a pro-life advocate.

When Roe v. Wade was decided almost half a century ago, Frederica Mathewes-Green believed that the landmark decision didn’t go far enough to ensure adequate abortion access for women. However, everything changed after she read an article titled “What I Saw at the Abortion” in a 1976 edition of the magazine Esquire that detailed the violent act against both woman and child that takes place when an abortion is performed. Simply put, there was no way that a peace-loving feminist could support this violence against both woman and child, and just like that she became a pro-life advocate. Frederica Mathewes-Green went on to become a pre-eminent voice for the lives of the unborn and—importantly—the mothers who carried these children. Almost everyone on both sides of the debate can agree on one thing—abortion is a miserable choice, as Frederica emphasized in Real Choices: Listening to Women, Looking for Alternatives to Abortion, “No woman wants an abortion as she wants an ice cream cone or a Porsche. She wants an abortion as an animal caught in a trap wants to gnaw off its own leg.”

Frederica joins Hank Hanegraaff to discuss the state of abortion in America as well as what she has learned during the decades of her distinguished career encouraging dialogue between pro-choice and pro-life advocates.

For more information, visit www.equip.org.

Topics discussed include: What changed your mind about abortion? (5:00); is abortion a violent act against women? (8:30); abortion fatigue—people just don’t want to talk about abortion (9:30); Roe v. Wade (11:00); snowflake children—when does life begin? (12:15); the importance of listening to the stories of women when discussing abortion (18:50); defending unborn children without making mothers the enemy (23:45); finding common ground—how can pro-choice and pro-life people better understand one another? (26:30); is public opinion changing on abortion? (30:25); most countries in the world have banned abortion after 12 weeks—making U.S. abortion policy one of the most liberal globally (33:20); “in the land where women kill their unborn children, every lesser love grows frail” (34:30); the extreme individualism of our culture (38:35); what would America look like without abortion? (40:30); what about adoption instead of abortion? (45:15); misconceptions about contraception (48:25); cheap sex—the devaluation of sex in a culture of free love (50:00); the difficulties of being a single parent and the benefits of a two-parent home (59:00); the war on adoption—why is adoption disparaged by abortion advocates? (1:02:40); what actually happens during an abortion procedure? (1:05:45); victims of unisex sexuality (1:12:10); the paradoxical aims of feminism (1:13:30); the problem with government welfare programs (1:18:15); the importance of a support system for mothers and children (1:20:00); the importance of listening to women’s stories about abortion (1:21:30); the issue of abortion in the early church (1:27:15); how should we talk about abortion? (1:30:00); responding to common pro-choice claims about abortion (1:34:00); the impact of Frederica Mathewes-Green’s book Real Choices: Listening to Women, Looking for Alternatives to Abortion (1:42:25).

Transcript

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0:00.0

Today is June 24th, 2022, and the Supreme Court of the United States voted to overturn Roe v. Wade in a five to four decision.

0:11.2

Justice Samuel Alito wrote the majority opinion joined by justices Thomas Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett.

0:19.0

And in light of today's ruling by the Supreme Court,

0:22.3

we would like to present to you an encore presentation of episode 140 of the Hank Unplugged

0:28.4

podcast, which was a conversation between Hank Anagraph and Frederica Matthews Green

0:33.7

on how to become a pro-life advocate.

1:13.3

Music Green on how to become a pro-life advocate. And welcome to another edition of the Hank Unplugged podcast, a podcast that is committed to bringing the most interesting, informative, and inspirational people directly to your earbuds.

1:23.8

And one of those inspirational, informative, interesting people is a person that I have interviewed on this podcast a number of times.

1:32.3

Her name is Frederica Matthews Green. And she is, well, difficult for me to introduce because there's so many different ways I could do it. On the one hand, she's a mentor and a friend,

1:38.7

and I would say a hero, to my children, my family in general, but she's also someone who has made an indelible mark

1:48.5

on our culture. She is an author, not only of books, but also of essays. She's written more than,

1:59.0

this is a staggering number, 800 essays. She's written more than, this is a staggering number, 800 essays.

2:03.7

She's written for such diverse publications as the Washington Post, the Smithsonian, and the Wall Street Journal.

2:13.6

She's also been a regular commentator for NPR and a podcaster for ancient faith radio.

2:23.3

One of the interesting things about Frederica is that she once was a staunch feminist.

2:32.2

If you go all the way back to the early 70s, she was a strong advocate for abortion.

2:40.3

She believed that abortion was essential, essential as an element of a woman's control over her own life.

2:56.7

But she later came to view abortion as an act of violence against unborn children, but also one which hurts a mother. And so she has been a person who was involved in not only speaking about the horrors of abortion,

3:13.3

but what happens to a woman when she has an abortion?

3:19.2

One of the books that I really want to focus on in this podcast is a book titled Real Choices, Listening to Women

3:27.6

Looking for Alternatives to Abortion. And at the very outset of this podcast, I want to point out

3:37.9

that Frederica is lauded, or at least respected, not only by pro-lifers,

...

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