Estimated reading time: 3 minutes.
Update October 12, 2017: Since writing this blog post I spent some time in Sacramento and found the abortion facility where I became pro-life, and shot a video telling the story, so if you prefer a video over a written story:
[youtube id=”mGpUySsdFdc”]
I sometimes get requests to do interviews for local students. You can read one of them here at LifeNews.com. I just did another one, and this is my response to one of his questions:
Student: When, where and how did you first become aware of abortion?
When I was 11 years old my dad took me to an abortion clinic with a group of men from our church to pray. I was a pretty sheltered homeschool kid, and I had never heard of abortion before. I wasn’t super serious about lengthy prayer sessions at the time, and I didn’t understand the prayers that I was hearing. I just remember thinking that it was strange that we were hanging outside of this ugly, brick building. But a separate group across the street were protesting with graphic abortion signs. I wasn’t traumatized. I just asked what the pictures were. That day my parents sat me down and told me what abortion was.
A documentarian asked me a few years ago about that day. “What were your emotions that afternoon? Were you angry?” I thought for a second and responded, “No, I wasn’t angry. I was shocked that anybody would want to do that. I was really, really sad. And I knew I wanted to do something about it.”
So I read Francis Beckwith’s first book on abortion, “Politically Correct Death,” and listened to a bunch of early Scott Klusendorf tapes dozens of times, and when people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would say, “I want to be a pro-life speaker when I grow up.” Basically I wanted to be Scott Klusendorf. 17 years later I got hired to keynote a pro-life youth conference in Chicago and the guy who picked me up at the airport informed me on the way to the hotel that I wasn’t their first choice. Scott Klusendorf was their first choice, but he wasn’t available, so they called me. I laughed and said, “I wanted to be Scott when I was 11 years old. If I’m anybody’s second choice after him, that’s awesome!”
Question: When, where and how did YOU first become aware of abortion? Post your story in the comments!
Josh worked in the pro-life movement starting at age 18. After 12 years of full-time pro-life work he launched Equal Rights Institute to maximize his impact on the movement.
A sought-after speaker, Josh has spoken for more than 29,000 people in six countries and in 25 of the 50 states.
Josh’s primary passion is helping pro-life people to be more persuasive when they communicate with pro-choice people. That means ditching faulty rhetoric and tactics and embracing arguments that hold up under philosophical scrutiny.
He has publicly debated leaders from Planned Parenthood, the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL), Georgians for Choice, and one of the leading abortion facilities in Atlanta.
Josh also wants to bring relational apologetics to the pro-life movement. “Some pro-choice people will not change their mind after one conversation on a college campus. Some of them will only change their mind after dozens of conversations with a person they trust in the context of friendship.”
Josh is formerly the host of a globally-heard podcast turned radio/TV show, Life Report and the Equipped for Life Podcast. He’s also written dozens of articles for LifeNews.com and the ERI blog. He has been interviewed by the Washington Post, NPR, and Focus on the Family.
He directed the first 40 Days for Life campaign in Fresno, resulting in up to 60 lives saved.
Josh has been happily married to his wife, Hannah, for 19 years. They have three sons, Noah, William, and Eli. They live in Charlotte, North Carolina.