Being Heard About Abortion

Yesterday I got to participate in a "deliberative forum" co-sponsored by Temple and Carnegie Mellon Universities, to which I was invited by BeHeardPhilly.com. It was an exercise in listening and exchanging views on a controversial topic in a civil fashion based on the principles of conflict resolution, where the objective is primarily to understand others' perspective and not necessarily to come to agreement.

In this case the topic was the regulation of abortion clinics. Since it soon became apparent that all the participants at my table were pro-choice but also saw it as desirable to minimize the number of people who feel compelled to choose abortion, much of the discussion focused on ways to provide alternatives to abortion and to prevent unwanted pregnancies. This gave me the opportunity to advocate for single-payer health insurance as well as a constitutional amendment to turn all large companies into public enterprises which any citizen could join at will -- both measures that would reduce financial motives for choosing abortion.

The question my table put to the panelists -- "What are the most effective methods of social influence for persuading morally conservative people to refrain from trying to impose their morality on others through law?" -- unfortunately didn't get a good answer because none of the panelists was a psychologist or behavioral scientist. But I wrote the title of my recent blog post where I attempted a partial answer to this question on the back of a card with this blog's address on it and gave it to the two panelists who'd attempted a response, as well as a couple of the people at my table.

On the whole it was a rewarding experience. I'd encourage others in this area to sign up with BeHeardPhilly.