full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Aspen Baker: A better way to talk about abortion

Unscramble the Blue Letters

But as much as abortion is hotly debated, it's still rare for us, whether as fellow women or even just as fellow people, to talk with one another about the abortions that we have. There is a gap. Between what happens in politics and what happens in real life, and in that gap, a battlefield mentality. An "are you with us or against us?" stance takes root. This isn't just about abortion. There are so many important issues that we can't talk about. And so finding ways to sfhit the conflict to a place of conversation is the work of my life. There are two main ways to get serttad. One way is to listen closely. And the other way is to share stories. So, 15 years ago, I cofounded an otaniograizn called Exhale to start listening to people who have had abortions. The first thing we did was create a talk-line, where women and men could call to get enoaimotl support. Free of judgment and ptlciois, believe it or not, nothing like our sevice had ever existed. We needed a new framework that could hold all the experiences that we were heranig on our talk-line. The feminist who regrets her abortion. The ctilaohc who is grateful for hers. The personal eernexcieps that weren't fitnitg nlatey into one box or the other. We didn't think it was right to ask women to pick a side. We wtenad to show them that the whole world was on their side, as they were going through this deeply pneroasl einxrpeece. So we invented "pro-voice."

Open Cloze

But as much as abortion is hotly debated, it's still rare for us, whether as fellow women or even just as fellow people, to talk with one another about the abortions that we have. There is a gap. Between what happens in politics and what happens in real life, and in that gap, a battlefield mentality. An "are you with us or against us?" stance takes root. This isn't just about abortion. There are so many important issues that we can't talk about. And so finding ways to _____ the conflict to a place of conversation is the work of my life. There are two main ways to get _______. One way is to listen closely. And the other way is to share stories. So, 15 years ago, I cofounded an ____________ called Exhale to start listening to people who have had abortions. The first thing we did was create a talk-line, where women and men could call to get _________ support. Free of judgment and ________, believe it or not, nothing like our sevice had ever existed. We needed a new framework that could hold all the experiences that we were _______ on our talk-line. The feminist who regrets her abortion. The ________ who is grateful for hers. The personal ___________ that weren't _______ ______ into one box or the other. We didn't think it was right to ask women to pick a side. We ______ to show them that the whole world was on their side, as they were going through this deeply ________ __________. So we invented "pro-voice."

Solution

  1. started
  2. hearing
  3. emotional
  4. experience
  5. politics
  6. catholic
  7. fitting
  8. wanted
  9. neatly
  10. shift
  11. experiences
  12. personal
  13. organization

Original Text

But as much as abortion is hotly debated, it's still rare for us, whether as fellow women or even just as fellow people, to talk with one another about the abortions that we have. There is a gap. Between what happens in politics and what happens in real life, and in that gap, a battlefield mentality. An "are you with us or against us?" stance takes root. This isn't just about abortion. There are so many important issues that we can't talk about. And so finding ways to shift the conflict to a place of conversation is the work of my life. There are two main ways to get started. One way is to listen closely. And the other way is to share stories. So, 15 years ago, I cofounded an organization called Exhale to start listening to people who have had abortions. The first thing we did was create a talk-line, where women and men could call to get emotional support. Free of judgment and politics, believe it or not, nothing like our sevice had ever existed. We needed a new framework that could hold all the experiences that we were hearing on our talk-line. The feminist who regrets her abortion. The Catholic who is grateful for hers. The personal experiences that weren't fitting neatly into one box or the other. We didn't think it was right to ask women to pick a side. We wanted to show them that the whole world was on their side, as they were going through this deeply personal experience. So we invented "pro-voice."

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
good listener 3
deeply personal 2
christian women 2

Important Words

  1. abortion
  2. abortions
  3. battlefield
  4. box
  5. call
  6. called
  7. catholic
  8. closely
  9. cofounded
  10. conflict
  11. conversation
  12. create
  13. debated
  14. deeply
  15. emotional
  16. exhale
  17. existed
  18. experience
  19. experiences
  20. fellow
  21. feminist
  22. finding
  23. fitting
  24. framework
  25. free
  26. gap
  27. grateful
  28. hearing
  29. hold
  30. hotly
  31. important
  32. invented
  33. issues
  34. judgment
  35. life
  36. listen
  37. listening
  38. main
  39. men
  40. mentality
  41. neatly
  42. needed
  43. organization
  44. people
  45. personal
  46. pick
  47. place
  48. politics
  49. rare
  50. real
  51. regrets
  52. root
  53. sevice
  54. share
  55. shift
  56. show
  57. side
  58. stance
  59. start
  60. started
  61. stories
  62. support
  63. takes
  64. talk
  65. wanted
  66. ways
  67. women
  68. work
  69. world
  70. years