Pro-Voice: How to Keep Listening When the World Wants a Fight [Paperback]

Dialogue, Not Dogma

When Aspen Baker had an abortion at the age of twenty-four, she felt caught between the warring pro-life and pro-choice factions, with no safe space to share her feelings.

In this hopeful and moving book, Baker describes how she and Exhale, the organization she cofounded, developed their “pro-voice” philosophy and the creative approaches they employed to help women and men have respectful, compassionate exchanges about even this most controversial of topics. She shows how pro-voice can be adopted by anyone interested in replacing ideological gridlock with empathetic conversation. Peace, in this perspective, isn’t a world without conflict but one where conflict can be engaged in—fiercely and directly—without dehumanizing ourselves or our opponents.Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Birth of Pro-Voice
Chapter 2: America’s Abortion Conflict
Chapter 3: Listen and Tell Stories
Chapter 4: Embrace Gray Areas
Chapter 5: Shape What’s Next
Conclusion
Notes
Resources
Acknowledgments
Index
About the AuthorThe founder of Exhale, a nonjudgmental post-abortion talkline, urges an approach toward compassionate dialogue around contentious issues that is centered on listening to individuals' stories of "nuanced, complicated personal experience." Baker expresses frustration with the polarized parameters for public discourse about abortion that are established by politicized activism on both the pro-life and pro-choice sides, and urges instead a empathetic, nonviolent "pro-voice" approach that "rehumanizes toxic dynamics" by focusing on listening, telling, and engaging with the personal accounts behind controversial issues. This method embracesl³B