AI Summary
5 min readEvery January 22 for nearly 50 years marked the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that established a constitutional right to abortion. When the Court overturned Roe in 2022 with the Dobbs decision, Alan Shlemon—a pro-life advocate for over two decades—admits he never thought he would see it in his lifetime. But as he explains in this solo episode of Thinking Out Loud, the victory was real but incomplete. Overturning Roe removed a federal constitutional right; it did not make abortion illegal. Today, abortion remains legal in about 30 states, and some companies even pay for employees to travel out of state to obtain one. The result, Shlemon argues, is a glaring inconsistency: it is illegal to kill a human being in every state, except when that human being resides in the womb and the mother asks a doctor to kill it. The work, he says, is far from finished.
The three-pronged framework: personal, public, political
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:30) **The Post-Roe Reality** - Alan Shlemon explains that overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022 removed the constitutional right to abortion but did not make abortion illegal; it remains legal in about 30 states.
- 2 (03:34) **The Three-Pronged Approach: Personal, Public, Political** - Shlemon introduces his longstanding framework for making abortion unthinkable, which he proposed years before Roe was overturned.
- 3 (04:36) **First Prong: Personal Commitment** - Individuals must personally commit to not having an abortion themselves, a step often neglected by attitudinally pro-life people.
- 4 (05:57) **Second Prong: Public Stand** - Pro-life advocates must stand up publicly by learning the art of persuasion and engaging in service.
- 5 (08:05) **Third Prong: Political Action** - The fight must continue in the political realm at the state level, where abortion rights are now being determined.
- 6 (09:56) **Conclusion and Call to Persevere** - Shlemon urges pro-life advocates not to rest on their laurels, as abortion choice advocates are galvanized and will redouble their efforts.
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Show Notes
Alan unpacks three steps pro-lifers should take to undermine abortion.
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