John Ensor - Stand for Life: A Students Guide for Making the Case and Saving Lives

Theres good news and bad news on the abortion front.

The good news is that abortion isnt popular. More and more people, particularly the millennials I speak to, dont like it. Theyre not impressed with euphemistic phrases like reproductive rights and womens health, both of which cover up the ugly reality of abortion on demand. Indeed, students dont have to look far to see the truth. Modern technology displays for all to see the beauty of innocent human life in the womb. Double homicide laws and other legal innovations demonstrate the inconsistency of legalized abortion on demand. Resource centers and the culture-wide embrace of adoption have established clear and compelling alternatives to abortion in cases of unplanned pregnancies.

The bad news is that many who oppose abortion lack the knowledge, skill, and practice to articulate that opposition in a winsome manner. Their hearts are passionate, but their minds lack training. As a result, the pervasive relativism that undergirds the culture of death remains largely unchallenged by Christian students. Their peers widely assume that ones position on abortion is a matter of personal choice rather than a matter of public truth.

If pro-life students are to change that, they must learn to present public arguments that cant be dismissed as private belief. If they do anything less, they will find themselves ill equipped to face pro-abortion professors and fellow students. Theyll be embarrassed when forced to stand up for the unborn. Even worse, theyll be unwilling to stand for the unborn at all!

Think about it: a lack of clarity eventually erodes away courage and conviction. Thus the most significant human rights issue of our lifetime is reduced to a matter of personal preference, and the evil that is abortion remains a scourge on our society. This is especially ironic in light of how concerned we seem to be these days for causes of social justice.

I am convinced that this book provides a missing piece for the pro-life puzzle. In the chapters that follow, you will find the clear, factual, and usable arguments that pro-life defenders simply must know today. As you learn these arguments, you will also find your courage and conviction bolstered and your passion for the unborn renewed.

Why do I believe this? Because I have seen it work. Ive watched Scott Klusendorf train thousands of high school and college students in these pro-life arguments. Ive watched students hear the material, learn the material, and then use the material to defend life in personal conversations, academic papers, classroom debates, and the public square. John Ensor, meanwhile, has established pregnancy centers in major urban areas through the United States. These centers reach out to women at a critical juncture, when the word positive is the last sound they want to hear. Now John is taking his ministry overseas, equipping international pro-life advocates to stand for biblical truth against impossible odds. Hes lived out his pro-life convictions in the toughest of circumstances.

I am so glad that thousands of others will now be trained because Scott and John have made this book available. We can defeat abortion. We can defend life. Lets get started.

John Stonestreet
Author and Fellow,
The Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview
Senior Content Adviser, Summit Ministries