Discussion on Abortion and Education

Hi, what's your name?

I'm Jody Hunt.

Hi, Jody.

Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you.

I am from Burleson, Texas.

Hey, Burleson. Yeah.

I'm also an eighth-generation Texan.

Hey, wonderful.

Yeah. Fantastic.

Well, I'm so glad you're here.

My family's been here since the Revolution.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm so, so grateful.

So we're very happy, very go Texans.

Yeah.

I'm, I'm a wife and mom of three.

Wonderful.

Um, like you, I'm also an educator.

Hey, thank you.

And back in 2011, I was teaching in San Antonio.

Wow.

At, at the-

We have a lot in common.

Yeah. At, at a Catholic private school, Antonian College Prep.

Yeah.

So shout out to all those students-

Yeah

... or former students there.

That's wonderful.

I'm now a university professor. Um, my topic is abortion.

Yeah.

I am a Catholic.

Yeah.

An orthodox Catholic. Um, you- as you know, Catholics, we

tend, um... and I, myself included, to be a one-issue voter, and

abortion is a large part of that, and dignity of the human person

and natural law.

I'm a theologian.

Yeah.

I, I was, um... and so that's, we have something in common.

Yeah.

Um, and because of that,

we believe that at the moment of conception,

there's a human life to protect.

Um, and so we struggle with the idea, um, that it's the woman's

right to choose because it takes two people to create that being, and the woman

is the bearer of that child into the world.

Um, and through co-creation, that child has been created.

So as people, we are to protect that life at all costs.

And so what makes it difficult for us to vote Democrat, um, is that

we have, uh, this idea that if you cannot provo- like,

provide policies or support policies that protect the most innocent among us,

who is the unborn child, how can we trust that

you're going to provide policies to protect the rest of Texans and to promote

dignity and human life in that? Um, so I challenge you on that-

Yeah

... um, and to provide some, some feedback on, like,

how would you convince me

as a Catholic voter-

Yeah

... that I can trust you that you would protect the most innocent

among us?

I, I'm so, so grateful that you, that you brought that question,

uh, 'cause I think there's a lot of folks in

Texas, a lot of Catholics, who are

asking themselves the same question, so thank you for doing it.

I know it's not easy to do it on live television.

No, it's not. Yeah. No, sure.

But, but I'm really, really grateful you did.

Um, you know, some of my spiritual heroes, uh, like Pope Francis-

Sure

... and Pope Leo

are pro-life.

Mm-hmm.

And they are consistently pro-life.

Mm-hmm.

They're not just against abortion, but they are against

poverty,

against climate change-

Mm-hmm

... against war. Um, and so I can respect anyone,

like you, who is consistently pro-life, and I

actually think there's common ground we can find here.

We may come to different moral and ethical c- conclusions when

it comes to the question of should abortion be legal or not.

Mm-hmm.

It sounds like you and I do come to a different conclusion.

That's okay.

Uh, you know, we're both Christians, and, and the Bible is silent

on the issue of abortion.

Mm-hmm.

It means you and I both have to look at, at different scriptures to try to come

to a conclusion.

But what I think we can do is actually

come together on reducing the number of unplanned pregnancies

and the number of abortions. Because if we treat this issue

as a public health problem and not a culture war

problem, then we can actually make progress

together.

And this is what drives me crazy about this debate, is we use it to kind

of beat each other over the head, right?

Um, we treat it as a philosophical debate

or a theological

debate, when actually it's a public policy

problem.

Because I also wanna see fewer unplanned or unwanted

pregnancies. I wanna see fewer abortions.

And so you and I actually have the same goal.

We may have different, um, moral conclusions when it comes to

this particular, uh, po- ethical question, uh,

but we actually have the same public policy goal.

And so if we can do that, if we can join together to make

sure that we have scientifically valid sex education, age appropriate sex

education, if we can make sure that folks who need contraception can get

it, if we can make sure everyone has

healthcare, something the Catholic Church has

led on, uh, then we know that that reduces the number of

abortions. Because you can look at the research

and you see that certain policy

levers, like sex edu- sex education, like healthcare, can actually

reduce the number of abortions and-

Sure

... that's what I'm willing to work with you

on.

Um, and I just wanted to add that, uh, the Bible is not silent on abortion.

There is the Ten Commandments, thou shall not kill, and as Catholics, um,

we take

great, um,

insult, I guess sometimes when it's described that way.

Um, but I also wanna add, I know I'm up on time, but, um,

contraception,

an age appropriate thing also when it comes to Catholic vote, um, is a

very trying thing for us 'cause we believe the parents are the prima- uh, primary

educator of our children. And so one of the things

that we really struggle with

is having any government interference with how we educate our children.

So I know we're gonna agree to disagree on that, but I do appreciate, um, your

comments on tending to the life from the womb to the tomb.

Yeah.

And I think that's one common ground we can come to.

And, and I think, you know, um, you know that I'm an educator like you.

Sure.

And if I believed, if, that abortion was murder,

that it violated the Ten Commandments, then I wouldn't support it.

And so it's okay that you and I come to different conclusions about

that.

Sure.

Um, but I think we could also look at the

current abortion ban in

Texas, which bans abortion in all cases, including in cases of rape

and incest, um, including when the life of the mother is in danger.

We currently see in Texas women dying in emergency room parking

lots from sepsis because their doctors are too afraid to provide

life-saving care. We talk about Texas women,

but it's also Texas girls.

We see girls as young as 10 years old who need that abortion

care, and they can't get it in Texas.

And so if we are authentically pro-life, I think we should be

disturbed by the outcomes of this extreme abortion ban.

That's why, that's why,

that, that, that's why, that's why I think you and I actually

agree more than we think we do. Again, the theological debate is interesting, and

you and I should, you know-

We should have our podcast or something

... grab, grab coffee or...

Yeah.

Yeah, we should do a podcast.

Do like... Yeah.

And I would love to get into that.

Sure.

But as a policy maker, I'm always like, how do we solve the problem,

right? How do we get better outcomes? And that's what you want, too.

Yeah. Okay.

That's what, that's what every pro-life person wants.

Okay.

And, and we should join together to do it.

Sure. Jody Hunt