Reason and Abortion

A conversation with Monica Snyder, Executive Director of Secular Pro-Life

Last December, I published a new essay on the ethics of abortion, building heavily on the Turnaway Study. Around the same time, I discovered that I wasn’t the only person who has noticed the disconnect between popularizations of the Turnaway Study and the study itself. Monica Snyder, Executive Director Secular Pro-Life, had a whole series of thoughtful criticisms. So I reached out to her, and she generously agreed to join me to discuss my essay, abortion in general, and what it’s like to oppose abortion on non-religious grounds.

Whatever your views on this topic, Monica Snyder is likely to challenge your preconceptions about “crazy right-to-lifers.” Though she’s not a statistician, she has an excellent grasp on the statistical methodology behind the Turnaway Study. She’s good-humored throughout. And she blends a fascinating personal odyssey with sincere philosophical curiosity.

A very fun conversation. And it made me realize: While my greatest practical success as an intellectual is convincing readers to have hundreds of additional kids, Monica’s words have plausibly led to the birth of ten times as many. After all, it’s much easier to convince someone to go through with a pregnancy in progress than to initiate a new one.