christianaudio
- Description
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Is a fetus a person?
Is “pro-choice” really a neutral position?
For 40 years since the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, the abortion debate has been highly charged and politicized. Questions like these—and passionate but widely varying answers—have become the common language of the public dialogue on this issue. Yet behind the scenes of this historic case are other intriguing questions:
· How did the Supreme Court come to be involved in the abortion debate?
· Was language manipulated to affect the outcome?
· What was the moral basis underlying the decision?In Compelling Interest, author Roger Resler draws on original sources, including the actual transcripts for oral arguments, the majority and minority opinions, and comments by the lawyers and others involved to take a careful look at the real story behind the historic Roe v. Wade decision.
Resler includes conversations with experts, including sociology professor Dr. William Brennan, the late Dr. Mildred Jefferson and Dr. Carolyn Gerster who co-founded the National Right to Life Committee, prolific author and speaker Randy Alcorn, bioethics professor Dr. Gerard Magill, perinatologist Dr. James Thorp, and photojournalist Michael Clancy.
This carefully researched book speaks with a thought-provoking, balanced voice that stands out from the usual partisan rhetoric on the topic.
Praise for Compelling Interest
“This is a must read for anyone, whether you consider yourself pro-life or pro-choice. We must be prepared with factual information, which is what this book gives you. The abortion lobby has fooled the American public far too long. We need to know the truth about abortion and how these laws came to be. Read this book to get the truth.”
— Abby Johnson - Former Planned Parenthood Director - Author of best-selling book Unplanned"One could say that as an abortion survivor, I have a compelling interest in the Roe v. Wade decision and the abortion debate that has ensued over the past 40 years. However, I believe that all of us have a compelling interest in knowing how we have arrived at this place of over 55 million lives lost and a world that has been forever changed as a result. As we mark 40 years of the Roe v. Wade decision, I believe that it’s important that we look at both how we have arrived at this place in time and reflect upon how our cultural landscape has been forever changed. I have found Compelling Interest to be effective at doing just that."
— Melissa Ohden • Saline Infusion Abortion Survivor - Pro-Life Speaker and Author"Roger Resler has provided us with a very complete and fascinating history—much of it behind the scenes—of the Roe v. Wade case, the events that led up to it, some of the major court cases after it, a lucid and cogent analysis of the legal issue of abortion, and a thorough rebuttal of the arguments advanced by proponents of Roe’s conclusion. This is a must read for all who work on the legal and ethical aspects of the abortion issue. I cannot recommend this work highly enough."
— Patrick Lee - McAleer Professor of Bioethics - Director, Institute of Bioethics - Franciscan University of Steubenville“I found myself absorbed in this book from page one. Roger Resler tells the lesser known story of how Roe v. Wade became the landmark that it is. We cannot understand our current ironic predicament—in which the state turns a blind eye to the elimination of millions of its future citizens—until we know the history of the abortion debate over the last 40 years. All in all, Compelling Interest is compellingly interesting and insightful.”
— Mark Galli - Senior Managing Editor Christianity Today
Customer Reviews
- I Wish My Pro-Choice Friends Would Take a Listen
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Every now and then you come across a book that is nothing like anything you've read (or listened to) before and you keep thinking back on it. I have always been Pro-Life, but this book only firms the foundation of my beliefs. How can anyone listen to this from start to finish with an open mind and not see that the Pro-Choice position is simply a denial of scientific fact, covered in a smoke-screen of lies and half-truths to try and clear the conscience of those who would rather kill the annoying little baby growing in them then take on the responsibility of parenthood?
Overall - Very much worth reading
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It was both frustrating and encouraging to listen to this book! It was frustrating to hear how completely ill-prepared the defense was for the case. but that is also encouraging because the entire pro choice case was built on such flimsy ground. So it should not be hard to overturn the ruling. I'm praying that happens in 2017. The audio version of this book is particularly interesting because it contains so many actual recordings from the lawyers, etc. themselves as well as interviews from various experts. It is long, but well worth your time.
Overall - Very good
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Very good book. Throught provoking. Gives compelling arguements against abortion.
Reader was very good.Overall - Show ALL Reviews
- Fascinating history of the Roe vs Wade decision
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Fascinating history of the Roe vs Wade decision. It helps to know the history to have some perspective on how we got here in our views about life and abortion.
Overall - Good sumation of Roe V. Wade
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This is a great history lesson the subject of pro abortion mindset. I was not familiar at all with R V. W and was glad to get to hear actual recordings from those hearings. I learned a lot to solidify my own feelings, and perhaps make me rethink about those feelings and ideas.
Overall - Very Informative
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Thank you, ChristianAudio, for providing this free on your website. It was very informative. A book that gets you thinking and will hopefully help people to action. A bit repetitive, but helps to fix concepts in the mind. I certainly recommend it.
Overall - A Compelling and insightful read
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I originally thought this was some sort of book on finances, imagine my surprise when I found out it was in relation to the abortion debate raging in American and centering on the Roe vs Wade case.
This book should be compulsory reading for any parent-to-be (not just the mother), if they are considering the possibility of abortion. So that they may be able to make an informed choice.
The information presented in this work is clear accurate and logically based. It shows the foolishness of the US Supreme Court decision to legalize abortion. A determination which lead to the justification of infanticide in a thesis written in the US in Feb 2012.
There is no doubt about it - this is a long book. I actually listened to the audio-book version from Christianaudio.com, and that had 53 chapters. And by the end of the book it was starting to get difficult to follow, but it was well worth the time spent, as I feel I am now more informed on the truth of what happened in the court case, and on the process of human birth.
I feel I can speak with some authority and understanding into the "wrongness" of abortion for the most part with some degree of understanding and factual knowledge.
The information in this book is compelling, well researched, not presented from an emotional or religious view-point, but rather on facts and logical argument.Overall - good
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Very good highly recommend
Overall - Astounding, thought-provoking treatise on Roe v Wade
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I was already strongly pro-life, but this book gave me lots to think about. For instance, I never knew that the primary point that Roe (or her attorney Sarah Weddington) was trying to prove was that the anti-abortion laws in consideration were primarily meant to protect the mother, not the child. Their case was not that the fetus is "just a blob of tissue," which is what is the current mantra you constantly hear from the pro-abortion side today.
Anyway, this book brings a lot of great arguments as to why the Roe decision is no longer valid (indeed, it never really was valid, there were just incompetent attorneys on the Wade side). This book does so without resorting to emotional arguments (with the occasional exception of an epilogue at the beginning of a chapter), but by presenting sound legal evidence from the Roe case and several other pertinent cases.Overall - Comprehensive, riveting, and intense
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Heaping too much praise on Roger Resler’s excellent book Compelling Interest would be a very difficult thing to do. His treatment of the abortion issue is comprehensive, extremely well-researched, and logically airtight.
His challenge to the status quo of legal, on-demand abortion in America is both gutsy and heart-felt. But this isn’t bullying or even an appeal to emotion. This is, instead, an indictment of the faulty logic and historical revisionism that characterized the pro-choice condition during the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, and has continued to reign since.
Resler systematically deconstructs the go-to arguments of the pro-choice camp’s most celebrated proponents. He paints a stark picture. Some sections of the book are downright chilling in their candor. These can very difficult to hear, but the book is so riveting that I didn’t want to turn it off.
Also, this audiobook is the best use of the medium I have ever heard. In addition to the excellent narration by the author himself, there are actual audio clips from the Roe v. Wade courtroom, and from people who the author interviewed. On top of this, extended quotes from other works are read by other voice actors throughout. Very cool! The result is that this lengthy and scholarly work becomes a dramatic tour de force.
I’m not sure if a print edition of this book exists, but it would be a good book to have for reference. However, I would still recommend the audio version because it is such a great use of the audiobook medium.
Every American should read (or, better yet, listen to) this book. I pray it makes the difference the author hopes it will. Thank you for your honesty, Mr. Resler! May it be heard!
Please Note: This audiobook was gifted as a part of the Christianaudio Reviewers Program in exchange for my unbiased review of this work. This has in no way influenced my opinion or review of this work.Overall - A must read or listen
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If you have wondered how we ever got to the stage of allowing abortions in North America, then this is the book to fill in the facts. Everyone should read (or listen) this book.
Overall - Does an unborn baby have Constitutional Rights?
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40 years after Roe vs. Wade, Compelling Interest, by Roger Resler offers an interesting look behind the scenes of the Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal in the United States. From the appalling ignorance of the attorneys handling the defense, to the twisting of language and history to manipulate the court’s decision, Resler makes a convincing case for life. In his interviews with experts and research into other historic court cases, the author demonstrates that the justices and defense attorneys allowed the legal team pursuing the “right” to legal abortion to bamboozle them.
In Resler's reading of his audiobook, actual conversations with the founders of the National Right to Life Committee, author and speaker Randy Alcorn, bioethics professor Dr. Gerard Magill, and other experts add objectivity and credence to a usually explosive topic. Doctors' descriptions of the abortion process at every stage of pregnancy are graphic and disturbing.
In the end, the key point I detected, was NOT whether the embryo, fetus, baby or "tissue" (as the attorney for the plaintiff chose to refer to it), was a living, human being. The question of life starting at fertilization/conception had been scientifically and irrefutably proven long before this case came to trial. The question before the court was whether this "tissue" had any "Constitutional Rights or protection" due to it. Unfortunately, as no precedent had been established, the best the defense could come up with was that "natural born" citizens were due protection of life, liberty, etc. under the Constitution of the United States. Sarah Weddington, attorney for the plaintiff, argued that this meant that since the "tissue" was not yet born, it had no rights. The Supreme Court justices fell for it.
In the ensuing arguments about how early a fetus could survive outside the womb, "quality of life" issues were introduced. Now we have a disturbing precedent. If the "quality of life" that a premature baby can enjoy is not of the quality deemed necessary by the court, what about the "quality of life" of the disabled, the elderly, the poor? It is frightening to see these very issues beginning to be addressed 40 years later.
I don't know about anyone else, but after giving birth to 4 children, I greatly respect the life that grows inside a woman's womb, however conceived, and however little "hope" there is for "quality" for that life. I also do not want anyone but God deciding when my "quality of life" has ended and so, therefore, must my actual life.
As a narrator, the author has a deep, commanding presence and the interspersed voices of experts he interviewed for the book offer a pleasant variety and help to keep the reader's interest.
I recommend this book for persons over the age of 16, due to the subject matter and graphic descriptions of the abortion process.
Original review: http://catholictraveller.blogspot.com/2013/03/compelling-interest-review.htmlOverall - Very Good
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Really learned a lot from this book. I really enjoyed the actual court recordings of the original Roe v. Wade. A very factual look at the history of abortion in America. It is quite long.
Overall - Excellent Audiobook - All people should here & study this
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An extreme amount of information (in a good way). It is scary how ill prepared the attorneys FOR Life were, with the Supreme Court. Also, how very scary the Supreme Court was with their "LACK" of knowledge about Human Development! Also, why didn't The Supreme Court study & find out about all of this? Isn't that their job?? It seemed to me that The Supreme Court took the matter of life very lightly! I think they just accepted what the abortion attorneys said & did no verification and research on any of it !!! And now at the cost of over 56 million lives! They should ALL HAVE SEEN the RESULTS of an abortion - meaning - images & actual aborted fetuses AND movies of different types of abortions, ALL at different stages of development. May God have mercy on us all!
Overall - Good!
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It's a plus with lots of information.
Overall - How Abortion Became Legal
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Compelling Interest by Roger Resler is an in-depth study of the Roe v. Wade court case in the United States of America that lead to abortion being legal 40 years ago. It is quite amazing to hear the extensive insights into the court case and the way in which it was won by the pro-abortion side.
This book covers the court case in great details revealing the potential mistakes that were made by both sides, the way the case has changed the language regarding the issue and what people who were around at the time had to say about the issue. It also focuses on updated technology today and how the ruling 40 years ago applies to today’s abortion debate.
As a Christian, I am very much anti-abortion as I believe killing unborn babies is the same as killing babies that have been born. I found this book to be very interesting and to hear about how they hand picked their defendant, how they aggressively argued their points and how they changed the language surrounding the key issues. I also found it very sad that with today’s technology where pregnant women can see clearly the movement, actions and features of the unborn baby from a very early stage and perform operations if needed, that abortion is still legal.
The narration was very good, as it had the author narrating most of the book in a very distinguished manner with numerous quotes from people involved in the case or the abortion debate in general.
If you want to understand the abortion debate or the case that brought it in America then this book should be your first book to read. It contains all the details and arguments with a slightly pro-life bias.
This audio book was gifted as a part of the christianaudio Reviewers Program in exchange for my unbiased review of this work. More information can be found about this and other Christian audio books at christianaudio.com.Overall - valuable
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'Readers . . . will gain valuable facts about how and why these legal decisions were first adopted and how our nation has slid further and further away from upholding the sanctity of life for unborn children.'
Overall - On The Nature of Denial
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I once saw a very disturbing video about the horrors of abortion. The video showed dead aborted babies. Thankfully, the viewer was warned of the disturbing images and that the viewer should turn their head if needed while gentle music continued to play in the background. Unfortunately, we as a nation have chosen to deny the truth about abortion.
While such a video simply showed the truth about abortion, any attempt to show the truth of abortion is met with vitriolic attack by those who favor abortion. In my opinion, abortion is one more area of justification of behaviors which result in unwanted consequences. We have become a society which declares “It’s not my fault” or “It’s someone else’s fault so you should feel sorry for me.” We then look for a way to avoid the natural consequences of what we have done. In this case, the natural consequence of intimate relationships out of marriage (or sometimes even within marriage) which result in a new baby being born is being excused and avoided by the medical intervention at the cost of a new baby’s life.
I have been aware of Roe v Wade for many, many years and have encouraged others to understand what this procedure actually is and that it results in the death of an unborn baby. This book is absolutely the best source of the circumstances surrounding this court case as well as details of the arguments by each side and much of the thinking of the justices (as reflected by questions by the justices and the written decision itself).
I have previously heard from those of both parties in the law profession that this decision was one of the worst decisions from a legal standpoint that has ever been made by the Supreme Court. This book gives us an up close and personal insight into the case and the various participants who were involved in the process.
I especially appreciated actual audio of various participants recorded at the hearings. Audio allows us to even get the hesitation in the speaker’s voices as they struggled to answer a hard question.
It was very, very obvious that even though those on the pro-abortion had reservations about late-term abortions (maybe because they understood that these late-term abortions likely destroyed preborn babies who could easily have lived outside of their mother’s body), they had no choice but to help the justices define “personhood” as coming about only at the actual time of birth. There was then and never will be any point from conception to birth where there is a clear delineation between something like a piece of the mother’s tissue and a new human life. It is only by ignoring this glaring problem that the justices brought themselves to the decision of Roe v Wade.
The narrator did a wonderful job of keeping the listener engaged.
I was given a free audio version of this book for my agreement to review it but this has not influenced my personal impressions of the book.
Overall - Compelling Listen
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At over 12 hours or 375 pages, in a word this book is persuasive. Resler's style is very logical, almost forceful. He isn't the greatest writer, and seems to prefer (overly) strong adjectives. Lastly, at times, maybe because of the length of the book, it seems like Resler repeats, or belabors the points. Those considerations aside, this book is unique in it's breadth, and force.
Resler goes through the history of abortion, an overview of Roe v. Wade (and abortion law), and the logic of the pro-choice/abortion position vs. the facts, and the pro-life position. In doing so, he systematically examines each argument and question to demonstrate that abortion not only stops a beating heart, but murders a living person. I prefer author's narration, and this is no exemption. Resler feeds his narration on emotion and sincerity. Unique to this book though is the massive amount of sound bites from author's interviews, and the fact that whenever Resler quotes someone (which is often) it cuts to a different voice reading the said quote. This makes the book more appealing and prevents you from tuning out. Though not perfect, this is a great book, and one I don't think any pro-choice/abortion author could answer.
I was given a copy of this title by christianaudio for review. They just ask for my honest opinion.Overall
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