Vitae’s Pro-Woman Approach

It is a true pleasure and privilege to be back at Vitae as the Director of Research! I have thoroughly enjoyed reconnecting with many of you and hope to see many more of you in the near future. We have much to do and it is my honor to work with each of you in the fight for life, the greatest human rights issue in history.

As joyful warriors in the fight, we have a secret “weapon,” which is Vitae’s Pro-Woman Approach to changing hearts and minds and making abortion unthinkable. You can access our dedicated research site (vitaeresearchinstitute.org) to learn about this unique and persuasive approach. At a basic level, it is based on reaching people where they’re at with a research- and consumer psychology-based approach. Identifying the audience is essential.

For example, if speaking with a woman facing the trauma of an unexpected pregnancy we want to “talk to her about her” and then later, when she feels safe, we can talk to her about her baby. For us, as pro-lifers, it can seem counterintuitive. This reminds me of a quote from Paul Swope’s article “Abortion: A Failure to Communicate,” “This research suggests that modern American women of childbearing age do not view the abortion issue within the same moral framework as those of us who are pro-life activists.” If we want to be effective pro-life messengers, it is vital to speak her language, even if it feels foreign to us.

Interestingly, the Pro-Woman Approach even helps us engage more effectively and persuasively with “the movable middle.” These are nominally pro-life or pro-abortion people who can be swayed by the empathy, understanding, compassion, and love we have for women (and the men who are with them) facing the trauma of an unexpected pregnancy. This, of course, does not diminish in any way our love for babies and innocent preborn lives. Indeed, since we care for and love preborn human beings as much as those already born, we strive to be effective at reaching the one person who has the most power to save this precious little one: mom.

The Vitae Research Team is committed to sharing this lifesaving research with pro-life warriors like you and also with a variety of pro-life organizations around the country. Here are some of the organizations with which we’ve recently presented research and education trainings:

• In-person research training to Americans United for Life’s leadership team and college interns in Washington, D.C.
• Virtual research training to Save the Storks’ CEO and Medical Director
• In-person keynote address of research to Illinois Pregnancy centers at Vision 2020 in Springfield, IL
• In-person research training to the Respect Life Apostolate at the Archdiocese of St. Louis
• In-person research training to The Family Foundation of Virginia
• Virtual research training to Life UK, London, England
• In-person research training to Parkville Women’s Clinic in Kansas City, Missouri
• In-person research training aimed at the abortion amendment to the Nebraska Catholic Conference
• Virtual research training to leaders at MiraVia, a national organization providing material support and housing to college women facing unexpected pregnancies
• In-person research training to pregnancy center staff at the Care Net Annual Conference in Aurora, Colorado
• In-person research training to Pro-Life Vanguard, a coalition of prominent leaders from dozens of pro-life organizations

Opportunities to share our research findings continue to grow, especially focused on our most recent Emotional Research study, “No Regrets?” which was conducted with women who have had abortions and focused on gathering data to help promote healing after abortion. Vitae’s Research Team will continue to teach and share the Pro-Woman Approach to equip pro-life individuals and organizations across the country. Thank you for supporting us in this endeavor and please spread the message, and the messaging power of the Pro-Woman Approach.

Gratefully,

Dr. Jeff Pauls