Audio Abort73: Recent Episodes
Michael Spielman
Audio versions of Abort73's published articles. Read by the author, Michael Spielman.
abort73.substack.com
There are essentially two types of charities in the world. Those that provide tangible services, like a soup kitchen, and those that provide non-tangible services, like a public school. And when it comes to evaluating their relative records of success, it's crucial you not mix these categories up.
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Track 11 on Switchfoot's new Forever Now! album contains a metaphor so simple and profound that we really need to talk about it. Without mentioning abortion, it testifies to the humanity of children in the womb. And without getting religious, it reveals how shortsighted it is to simply assume that nothing awaits us beyond the grave.
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The Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. Frederica Mathewes-Green’s “Let’s Have More Teen Pregnancy,” and Sheldon Vanauken’s A Severe Mercy. Let’s talk about them all, and why the old vices were better than the new.
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Pro-life luminaries Scott Klusendorf and Seth Gruber find themselves on opposite sides of the "Equal Protection" debate. Their respective arguments (and recent articles) leave us with a lot to consider. Does justice demand that we prosecute mothers for the crime of abortion, or does wisdom demand that we take the victories we can get?
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The existence of evil in a world made by a good God isn't all that hard to explain. But how can evil exist in a world where believers with even a modicum of belief are promised anything they ask for in prayer? Have you ever thought about why that is and what it says about our faith?
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Massachusetts' reported abortion total for 2024 is shocking and unprecedented. It's double the reported total from 2023 and triple the total from 2020. Then there's this. The vast majority of Massachusetts' 2024 abortions occurred out of state on women who live out of state. How is that possible? Good question.
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England's total fertility rate has fallen to an all-time low. An unsustainable low. Meanwhile, it pays to abort nearly a third of its unborn children. And almost all of those abortions now occur apart from any hospital, doctor’s office, or abortion clinic. They happen in the mother's own home, because it's now easier in Great Britain to have an abortion than it is to see a doctor.
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There is no shortage of people out there who reject virtually every tenet of the Christian faith but insist they know exactly what Jesus would or wouldn't do. Some of them recently descended upon a church in the Twin Cities. The divine command to "love your neighbor" has become the basis for all sorts of diabolical schemes, so we better give some serious thought to what Christ is and isn't calling us to. Before it's too late.
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Planned Parenthood asserts that over 80% of Americans support legal abortion. And plenty of people have taken them at their word. But anyone who bothers to examine the basis of their dubious claim will come to a very different conclusion. Since few people are willing to make that effort, we've done the legwork for you.
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The era of virtual abortion clinics looks to have officially arrived. Which is very bad news. Because just as anonymity and ease of access vastly increased the market for pornography, virtual abortion clinics look to do the same in the realm of baby killing. God help us.
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Why are there no gay couples on Dancing with the Stars?! And what does that tell us about the modern pretense that two men or two women can be wed? In an effort to better understand what all is covered by the Bible's condemnation of "sexual immorality," we offer this long and convoluted trip through Scripture. Starting in Genesis 1:1.
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During the late 1970's two of the biggest bands in the world were linked by a single abortion. The Eagles' Don Henley was the father and Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks was the mother. Nicks purportedly had the abortion to ensure that Fleetwood Mac would survive, but as things turned out, neither band would survive for long. Was their abortion at all to blame?
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In 2021, Voddie Baucham and Charlie Kirk shared the stage—along with Eric Metaxas—at Salem Media's panel discussion on biblical justice vs. social justice. Voddie and Charlie both died within weeks of either other last month, making their remarks at this event even more worth hearing.
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Charlie Kirk was hated by the world for the same reasons as Jesus. For testifying that its works are evil (John 7:7). And just like Christ before him, the world killed him for it. It's been six decades since an American icon was last assassinated, which makes this new ground for almost all of us. May God grant that we learn our lesson before it's too late.
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Douglas Murray's latest book—On Democracies and Death Cults—is both compelling and heartbreaking. It also connects to abortion in some unexpected ways. And it is Murray himself who first makes that connection. Whatever your position on Israel or abortion, there is much to wrestle with here.
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As Americans dispute whether or not President Trump has the authority to “liberate our capital from bloodshed” by deploying the National Guard, new data from Guttmacher reveals that bloodshed on the streets of D.C. is as nothing to the bloodshed taking place behind closed doors.
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While the new Superman movie was surprisingly dreadful, the new Fantastic Four was surprisingly good. And literally so.
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If you had to stake your life on one truth about God, what would it be? What theological claim would you have the most confidence in? For R.C. Sproul, one of America's most influential 20th-century theologians, it was this. God hates abortion.
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It turns out there’s a reason why so many abortionists don’t have hospital admitting privileges—and can’t necessarily get them. We'll talk about why that is. And about the fact that most abortionists in America are old men.
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Joe Rogan has published more than 2,000 podcasts over the last 15 years. Some 332 have mentioned abortion. Consider this the definitive deep dive into everything Joe Rogan has so far said on the subject. It covers the things he gets right but mostly focuses on the things he gets wrong. Because Joe Rogan is by no means alone in his misconceptions about reproductive rights.
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JD Vance is well educated and well spoken. He's a good debater, and he's pro-life. But he's not particularly good at talking about abortion. This episode looks at what Vance said about abortion in the vice presidential debate and on Joe Rogan—and how, perhaps, he could have said it better.
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No churches or charities are above reproof. And as more and more people wake up to the fact that global charities are among the most fraudulent and insidious entities in existence, an important question remains. How do we evaluate such institutions to determine whether our support should be given or withheld?
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Last March, Guttmacher estimated that more than one million abortions took place in the United States in 2023—which would have been a historic year-over-year increase. But now that many state abortion totals have come in, that number looks to be a significant exaggeration. This episode also examines America's dwindling birth rate in a broader historic context.
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Rural maternity wards are shutting down in Alabama. The culprits: too few babies and too little money. But a new article by Olivia Reingold at The Free Press places the blame on Alabama's pro-life politicians. Let's talk about that.
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Abortion proponents have never cared more about abortion than they do right now. Abortion opponents have never cared less. Let's talk about why that is and what it portends for the future.
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The government's response to COVID changed everything. And not in a good way. Abortion was no exception. When our collective fear of the future is heightened, abortions increase right along side it. Ironically—or perhaps tragically, many of the same arguments so frequently eschewed in the context of abortion suddenly became unassailable in the context of COVID.
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Guttmacher's 2023 abortion estimates are in and they're bleak. But are they accurate, and what do they mean? Do abortion bans not work? Or would the 2023 abortion totals have been even more grotesque were it not for the 13 states that have banned abortion?
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Over the last two years, Abort73 has received 37 testimonies from women who purportedly do not regret their abortion. This represents 13% of the whole. But many of the women who insist they have no regrets make statements that call such claims into question. Take a listen to their stories to see what you think.
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Kamala Harris is on the verge of becoming America's first female president. And that's a big deal. But in terms of her own demographic profile, her sex is by no means the most significant thing about her. Nor is her race. It's the fact that she has no children. Harris would be America's first childless president in more than 160 years, and that means something. The question is, what?
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Abort73's 817th published abortion story is the first ever from a "transgender man"—and it's not a happy one.
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After conversion, is a Christian's job merely to make more converts? Or does God expect something more from those who bear his name? And what would he have us do about the widespread embrace of abortion?
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In Jordan Peterson's interview with Sarah Hill about her book, This is Your Brain on Birth Control, he suggests that what the pill is doing in essence is to change women into men. He calls it “the biggest biological transformation in our species’ history.” In many ways, Dr. Hill is a champion of the birth control pill, but what she has to say about its dangers well may shock you.
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This discussion leans on the insights of Doug Wilson and C.S. Lewis to call for Christian engagement that is not bitter or cynical—but joyful.
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The state of Alabama found itself in hot water after its supreme court declared that all human embryos would be recognized under the law—including those cryogenically stored in fertility clinic vaults. Donald Trump has since insisted that legislators must make allowances for the "miracle" of IVF. But for anyone who opposes abortion, on what grounds could they actually do this?
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Have you ever considered that Planned Parenthood destroys parenthood under the banner of Parenthood? Pretty devious, right? As America's largest abortion provider, by a mile, wouldn't Planned Abortion be more appropriate? And what would their website look like if they decided to say the quiet parts out loud? It's time to find out.
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Taylor Swift's music is hard to resist. It's little wonder that she's Spotify’s most-played artist and Time magazine’s Person of the Year. And now the Taylor Swift Super Bowl is upon us! But America's darling has also become increasingly political and increasingly partisan—which is why the Democrats have, according to Forbes, pinned Joe Biden’s reelection hopes on two things: Taylor Swift and abortion.
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The federal legalization of abortion in 1973 led to the largest one-year abortion increase in American history. Outlawing abortion in 2022, even in just a fraction of states, led to the largest one-year abortion decrease in American history. That's worth considering.
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In the aftermath of Hamas' brutal attack on Israel, in which close to 900 innocent civilians were killed—including women and children—one uncomfortable fact remains. Israel itself kills twice as many Jewish children each day as Hamas did on October 7. Does that mean anything? Existentially? Or does the God of Jacob no longer care about child sacrifice?
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Alex Berenson points out that in post-Roe America, abortion has become a real problem for Republicans. And an apparent boon for Democrats. He suggests that unless Republicans move on from this toxic issue, the Democrats are going to continue running the country into the ground. But is he right?
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The ACLU has made abortion rights and transgender rights its top two policy priorities and has partnered with Planned Parenthood to craft state constitutional amendments which would guarantee the right to abortion without respect to age. The ACLU also recently published a 34-page brief calling for the total decriminalization of sex work—including sex work for minors. Is it possible that the legalization of childhood prostitution is being back doored into their legislation on abortion?
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Abort73 has published more than 700 stories of abortion regret and heard from upwards of 50 women who don’t regret their abortion. But we’ve never heard from anyone who regrets giving birth. Why is that? And does the paradigm-shifting work Israeli psychologists Amos Tversky and Danny Kahneman offer anything in the way of explanation?
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Dietrich Bonhoeffer thought deeply about the church's responsibility to oppose state-sanctioned evil. And he didn't just think; he acted—which cost him his life. Today Bonhoeffer is hailed for being one of the only German pastors to publicly stand against Hitler, but what would Bonhoeffer say of abortion? What would he expect men and women of conviction to do?
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When you hear the assertion that abortion is gay, do you consider that a positive or a negative? And why? Though it’s not my general habit to lump these issues together, we’re going to hazard the exercise for at least one episode—in case mere opposition to abortion isn’t controversial enough. It’s not that I’m a glutton for punishment, but sometimes things need to be said. Answers must be given. And dangers have to be spelled out.
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The admonition to store up treasure in heaven is a familiar one. But what does that mean exactly? Chances are, it doesn't mean what you think it does. So here's the case for a rather unconventional retirement strategy—based on spending all of your money.
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Something interesting is happening in the world of killer comics. Bill Burr, Louis C.K., Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle seem to all have recognized the same thing about abortion. Perhaps it's time we started listening to them.
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No matter how familiar you are with the life and ministry of John the Baptist, there's a very good chance you've never given thought to one of his central offices. And it's one that has plenty of ramifications for the issue of abortion.
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Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger was unequivocally devoted to eugenics, but was she a racist? Well, that's complicated. Lots of people have made her out to be a white supremacist, but there's not much evidence for the claim. Sanger's racism, if you want to call it that, was far more subtle—and progressive.
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In the aftermath of last week's fatal shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville, pundits are again decrying the violence and looking for explanations. Most of the resulting commentary is predictable and uninspiring. If you want to know what has fundamentally changed in America since the rise of school shooting violence, here's a teaser. It's not the guns.
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Margaret Sanger was the founder of the birth control movement in America and the founder of the organization that became Planned Parenthood. She predicted in 1916 that it would only take two generations for birth control to eliminate poverty and mental illness—along with war, crime, ignorance, and disease. Four generations in, that vision hasn't been remotely realized. So why are we still all in on birth control?
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When C.S. Lewis first published The Screwtape Letters in 1942, legal abortion was still decades away—though it’s not hard to imagine how Screwtape and his cadre of demonic tempters would have salivated at the prospect. But why would such a rascally devil throw his weight behind something as urbane as celibacy? That is precisely what this five-letter narrative sets out to demonstrate.
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Did you know that Planned Parenthood was founded to combat abortion but now sells abortion? In fact, Planned Parenthood operates the largest abortion business in America—accounting for roughly a third of all abortions. Is that a problem? Its founder, Margaret Sanger, certainly would have thought so.
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What if Jordan Peterson's world-beating 12 Rules for Life were applied to the issue of abortion? What could stopping to pet a cat or leaving kids alone to skateboard have to teach us about the treatment of unborn humans? A lot, actually. This 90-minute lecture turns each of Peterson's 12 Rules (for Life!) into a mandate for protecting the lives of the most innocent and helpless members of the human community.
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The CDC won't release their 2021 abortion numbers until the end of the year, but we needn't wait that long for a reliable nationwide total. Based on state abortion numbers from 33 states, it's possible to extrapolate a U.S. total for 2021—which we've done. The results, unfortunately, are not what we would have liked.
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Planned Parenthood publicly calls American police departments racist institutions of white supremacy. All the while, Planned Parenthood kills upwards of 130,000 black babies each year. Planned Parenthood, in fact, aborts more black babies each year than white—which is a disparity worth thinking about.
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It's hard to imagine anyone reading Brave New World and concluding that the future it portrays is a good or healthy one. And yet virtually all of its individual parts are things we've come to celebrate in our own world today. Perhaps that's because so few of us have actually read this dystopian classic—so we can't recognize the pending threats. This episode identifies one of those threats for you. A big one. It's called abortion.
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Though J.K. Rowling's horcrux is a fictional convention—a literal rending of the human soul—it connects to the violence of abortion in a fairly straightforward way. Voldemort attempted to secure his own future by killing an innocent child. As you may have noticed, abortion promises much the same thing. Call it the freedom and autonomy of an unencumbered life. But even in this world, you cannot do fatal harm to an innocent human being without seriously compromising your own soul. And we have the testimonies to back that up.
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You may have never considered the influence your date of birth has had on the course of your life, but it's almost certainly more significant than you realize. This is even more true for those born prematurely. According to Scientific American, all sorts of chronic health problems in adults can be traced back to their experience in the womb—and though Scientific American doesn't realize it, this has all sorts of ramifications for abortion.
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Audio version of an abortion testimony shared with Abort73 on August 4, 2022. It comes from a 28-year-old woman in Minnesota. After finding out she was pregnant as a senior in high school, the baby's father—along with her mom and grandparents—insisted she have an abortion or else live life without their support.
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A discussion of the lawsuit brought by Mario Villegas against the Arizona doctors who intentionally killed his child. The caveat: his baby was a 6-week embryo at the time of death, killed via medical abortion. Villegas' contention is that the abortion clinic did not properly disclose state-mandated information prior to the abortion, but the bigger question relates to a father's right—or lack thereof—to save his child from abortion.
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A discussion of Oregon's declining abortion rate in 2020 and 2021. What are the factors that are causing abortions to decrease in Oregon as they increase in most of the nation?
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The Left likes to claim that those who oppose abortion are trying to force their religious beliefs on the rest of the country—but this is mere projection. It is the Left who clouds the abortion debate with metaphysical arguments that subvert the normal scientific process. The biology is clear: abortion kills an unborn human being.
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A discussion of abortion's impact on the black community over the last 50 years—particularly in light of remarks made by President Obama and Lebron James following the Supreme Court's reversal of Roe v Wade.
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Reaction to the Supreme Court's verdict in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, which vacated the 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade.
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Despite public feuds and ideological divisions, the world’s richest men are united in their financial devotion to abortion. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. America’s oldest and largest philanthropies have been progressively eugenic from the very beginning.
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As the abortion ratio rose in 2020 for most of the country, it fell dramatically in South Dakota and Oklahoma. Buy why? This episode also covers the Texas abortion ban which went into effect in the fall of 2021. How did Texas women respond? How were surrounding states impacted? And what does it tell us about a post-Roe America?
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