Debating Abortion

On Tuesday, February 15, my class attended a legislative conference at which we learned how to politely lobby your senator/representative.
The three key elements are:
1.Be civil- respectful, not agressive
2.Be personal- have a personal story or statistics from the district (NUMBERS ARE IMPORTANT!!)
3.Be local- officials value opinions of people in their district
After learning about this and much more, we crossed the street to meet our represenntative: Brett Hulsey at the capitol. Little did we know that this would prove a more exiting visit than we had planned. Upon arriving at the capitol, we were overwhelmed by the crowds of protesters gathered there against Governor Walker's new budget bill. We found the representative's room, but only after much searching and nearly losing half of the class. Representative Hulsey invited us in, and told us we could ask him some questions. Right away my History teacher- Mr. Curio asked what his agenda was for protecting unborn life. To our great surprise, he answered that he was an expert on protecting fetuses... from AIR POLLUTION!
After that the pace of discussion picked up. A boy in my class named Timmy asked him when he thought that life began, and completely evading the question, Hulsey continued to talk about air pollution and admitted to being pro-choice. Bibi, a sophmore, then asked him why, if he was so focused on protecting fetuses, he would allow abortion. In response to this he simply stated that he wanted to limit abortion and unplanned pregnancys. When Bibi asked about adoption he replied, "Who would want to adopt. There are plenty of kids in orphanages, and since nobody wants them, the government has to pay for them." Those of us whose familys have adopted promptly told him that we had adopted, and after that I began to debate with him over various points until I felt so exasperated that I was near the point of crying because I was so appalled. Bibi, Ana, and Jose continued the debate, but our schedule forced us to depart before we had finished.
Maybe we'll go back sometime and finish our debate!