Pro-life people know why THEY think abortion is wrong, but many don’t know what would persuade a person from a completely different background with a different set of assumptions.

Just two months after starting Equal Rights Institute, Josh and Timothy Brahm gave their first seminar together on pro-life dialogue. In order for that to be possible, they had to very quickly take their growing body of original content and combine it with the most helpful tools they had learned from other pro-life leaders. From August 2014 to August 2016 only about four hundred individuals have had the opportunity to experience ERI’s full seminar in pro-life dialogue. Until now.

The Equipped for Life Course makes it possible for any individual or group to experience ERI’s pro-life dialogue training.

They can also continue to learn with and interact with the ERI staff directly through the private Facebook group.

Here’s what people who attended ERI’s live seminar had to say:

"I love apologetics, and I have never heard such great methods and arguments as I did today. I especially appreciate your emphasis on being compassionate. I realized that I need to be more compassionate, listen, and treat people as human when I talk to them.“ ~Meleah

“I think that this is the best, most productive, and most effective pro-life training I have been able to find. This seminar has changed me in that I have a marked increase in my confidence in these arguments. I really think I will be able to dialogue more effectively and more lovingly.” ~Sean

“You guys had amazing responses to difficult pro-choice arguments I was struggling with, and I love the focus on being personable. This seminar made me ten times more comfortable engaging my peers because I’m more prepared.“ ~John Paul

“I realized in some ways I am actually kind of hard-hearted or utilitarian, and this seminar gave me another realization of my own personal heart and things to work on in the context of defending the vulnerable .” ~Elissa

“I learned so much that I can utilize for my club and my personal life. You’ve proved me wrong and made me think differently about the way I’d normally approach the situation. I knew I needed to be more loving, but I’ve learned questions to ask, how to be a better listener, and how to go about the discussion in a personalized, rational, calm, and effective way. Thank you!” ~Brooke

Want a preview of the course?

Check out one of the lessons from our eight-part series on practical dialogue tips below:

We explain everything in these 10 modules!

MODULE 1

Habits of Highly Ineffective Pro-Lifers

We begin the course by talking about six all too common bad habits you should avoid if you want to have productive conversations with pro-choice people.

MODULE 2

Practical Dialogue Tips

We then explain eight specific, really practical suggestions that will help the people you’re talking with to have a less defensive posture, vastly improving the likelihood of them changing their minds.

MODULE 3

Trot Out a Toddler

We teach how to redirect and clarify many pro-choice arguments with a classic pro-life argument. Learn our approach to the tool, multiple examples of how we make the analogy, some creative and unusual ways to use it, and our response to a common counter-argument to the analogy.

MODULE 4

The Biological Case for the Unborn

After providing evidence that the unborn is alive, a member of the human species, and a distinct organism, we discuss when it’s the right time to appropriately appeal to scientific authority and give an explanation of how to do that well if a person is stubbornly insisting that the unborn is not biologically human.

MODULE 5

The Philosophical Case for the Unborn

The most persuasive way to argue for the personhood of the unborn is to start by asking why anyone deserves equal rights. We describe the best explanation of this common ground, which includes the unborn. We then respond to pro-choice alternative explanations for equal rights.

MODULE 6

The Question of Rape

Any advocate for the unborn must be ready for the most emotionally charged and difficult question in the abortion debate. We explain how to respond relationally and intellectually.

MODULE 7

Bodily Rights Arguments

We introduce what bodily rights arguments are, why it is so important that pro-lifers understand them, and why they so often don’t. We then explain how to respond to both types of bodily rights arguments.

MODULE 8

The Greater Good

Sometimes pro-choice people seem to be making one type of argument when in fact they are making a subtle utilitarian argument. This is difficult to spot, so we explain how to recognize it when it happens and equip you to respond to utilitarianism.

MODULE 9

Talking to Abortion-Minded and Post-Abortive People

This is a panel discussion with ERI’s Josh Brahm and Jacob Nels joined by Students for Life’s Missy Stone on how to talk to people considering abortion and people with abortion in their past.

MODULE 10

An Advanced Philosophical Case for the Unborn

We teach an advanced version of the Equal Rights Argument that gives a philosophically thorough explanation as to why human embryos should be considered valuable persons with serious moral status. We respond to the strongest objection to our claims about personhood made by pro-choice philosophers like Michael Tooley, David Boonin, and Jeff McMahan. Finally, we address in this lesson what are called “marginal cases” and answer why we think it is philosophically consistent to say that children with anencephaly are valuable people, too.

3 exclusive bonuses!

Who is this course for?

This course will be helpful to lots of people, but here's who we had in mind when we designed the course:

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I download the course?

You can download the MP3 versions of every course video, if you want to listen to the course or review it later while driving or walking around campus. You can also download the podcasts. The only thing you can’t download are the videos; you have to stream them from the website.

I'm a group leader. How does group membership work?

Assuming your group has 10 or fewer people in it, sign your club up for the $299 option and you will get instant access to the site. The last step is for you to send us the full names, email addresses, and phone numbers of your group members and we’ll set up their free membership on our end, and they’ll simply get an email with their login info.

My group has more than 10 people. What should I do?

If your group has between 10 and 30, the $399 option is a great deal, with each seat costing the same or being discounted from the group of 10 option (depending on how many people you have). But if you just have a few more people than 10 or 30, contact us at [email protected] and we’ll work something out. The last step is for you to send us the full names, email addresses, and phone numbers of your group members and we’ll set up their free membership on our end, and they’ll simply get an email with their login info.

Do you offer bulk discounts?

Yes. If you have somewhere between 30-99 students, we’ll get them all set up and lock in the Group of 30 rate of $13.30 per person. If you want to bring in 100 or more, we’ll give a major discount for them at just $5.00 per person! In that case, don’t purchase the course here. Email us at [email protected] and we’ll get you set up. You’ll ultimately need to get us a spreadsheet with everyone’s first and last name, email address, and phone numbers so we can set up their memberships and invoice you for however many people are getting the course.

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