Dialogue on Abortion among Pro-Life and Pro-Choice Leaders in conjunction with the Public Conversations Project

Dialogue to calm rhetoric, prevent violence, and promote respect among Pro-Choice and Pro-Life leaders

Susan Podziba co-facilitated secret talks between Massachusetts Pro-Life and Pro-Choice leaders with Laura Chasin of the Public Conversations Project (PCP). The talks, initially slated for four three-hour meetings over the period of one month, continued over six years and culminated in a consensus article published in the Boston Globe, entitled, “Talking With the Enemy.”

The talks were initiated at the request of the Governor and the Archdiocese of Boston after fatal shootings at two women’s health care clinics in Brookline, Massachusetts, that left two dead and several wounded. Prior to convening talks of the Pro-Life and Pro-Choice leaders, Susan Podziba and Laura Chasin interviewed numerous individuals from both camps to determine the feasibility of initiating the talks and the potential goals for such meetings. At the time, there was great fear of additional violence and strong opposition from some quarters against bringing the two sides together.

Ultimately, Ms. Podziba and Ms. Chasin invited six women to participate in a four-meeting dialogue to: develop relations built on mutual respect and understanding that could contain differences about values and policies, clarify differences and identify shared values and concerns, exchange information on matters of mutual concern, create channels of communications with leaders on the other side, help de-escalate the polarization among Pro-Life and Pro-Choice groups in Massachusetts, and identify possible joint activities.

Over the next six years, Susan Podziba and Laura Chasin designed and facilitated over 150 hours of meetings, which led to deep relationships among the participants based on an understanding of their similarities and deep differences; informational exchanges about abortion and related issues including “partial birth”/D&X (dilation and extraction) abortions; channels of communication that helped to protect the physical safety of some of the participants; a de-escalation of the polarization and public rhetoric used by the Pro-Choice and Pro-Life movements in Massachusetts; and a 3000-word, jointly written newspaper article.

The Boston Globe article provided the vehicle for the Pro-Life and Pro-Choice leaders to go public with their experiences of participating in the talks. All six leaders remained firmly committed to their stance on abortion, but gained deep respect for each other and deepened their understandings of the issues that divide them. In response to the Globe article, the leaders received thousands of letters and emails from around the world expressing thankfulness and hope because of their efforts.

Press about the Abortion Dialogues

From the Boston Globe Article (January 28, 2001)

Talking with the Enemy

For six years, leaders on both sides of the abortion debate have met in secret in an attempt to better understand each other. Now they are ready to share what they have learned.

By Anne Fowler, Nicki Nichols Gamble, Frances X. Hogan, Melissa Kogut, Madeline McComish, and Barbara Thorp

On the morning of Dec. 30, 1994, John Salvi walked into the Planned Parenthood clinic in Brookline and opened fire with a rifle. He seriously wounded three people and killed the receptionist, Shannon Lowney, as she spoke on the phone. He then ran to his car and drove two miles down Beacon Street to Preterm Health Services, where he began shooting again, injuring two and killing receptionist Lee Ann Nichols.

Salvi's 20-minute rampage shocked the nation. Pro-choice advocates were grief-stricken, angry, and terrified. Pro-life proponents were appalled as well as concerned that their cause would be connected with this horrifying act. Governor William F. Weld and Cardinal Bernard Law, among others, called for talks between pro-choice and pro-life leaders.

We are six leaders, three pro-choice and three pro-life, who answered this call. For nearly 5 1/2 years, we have met together privately for more than 150 hours - an experience that has astonished us. Now, six years after the shootings in Brookline, and on the 28th anniversary of the US Supreme Court's landmark Roe v. Wade decision, we publicly disclose our meetings for the first time.

How did the six of us, activists from two embattled camps, ever find our way to the same table?

Complete Article