WATCH: Speaker and author Scott Klusendorf offers framework for debating abortion

Scott Klusendorf, founder and president of Life Training Institute, spoke to attendees at Live Action's Young Leaders Summit in March. He gave the audience a clear framework for speaking about abortion, emphasizing that it isn't necessary to have all the right persuasive arguments.

Instead, Klusendorf said, you just need to know where to start.

Key Takeaways:

• Scott Klusendorf addressed attendees at Live Action's Young Leaders Summit in March.

• He told the audience it's important to focus on the main thing in the abortion debate: the morality of intentionally ending a human life.

• He then laid out three key questions he believes every pro-life advocate must answer: What is the unborn? What makes humans valuable? And what is our duty?

• He explained that dignity is not based on size, development, intelligence, or dependency.

The Details:

Why Most Pro-Lifers Lose Arguments Before They Begin | Young Leaders Summit 2026

Klusendorf emphasized that when speaking about abortion, it's important to focus on the “main thing” in the abortion debate: the morality of intentionally ending human life. He noted that abortion debates often get sidetracked into discussions of “choice, privacy, [and] trusting women,” but insisted that the core issue should remain whether abortion unjustly kills an innocent human being.

“The best way to make a defense for the pro-life view,” he said, “is to keep the main thing the main thing.” He encouraged the audience to focus on a simple, logical framework:

“Premise one: it’s wrong to intentionally kill an innocent human being. Premise two: abortion intentionally kills an innocent human being. Conclusion: therefore, abortion is wrong.”

Zoom In:

He then laid out three key questions he believes every pro-life advocate must answer:

• What is the unborn?

• What makes humans valuable?

• What is our duty?

Klusendorf turned to embryology to answer the first question: "What is the unborn?"

“From the earliest stages of development, from the one-cell stage, you were a distinct, living, and whole human being,” he stated. He stressed that the unborn child is not merely part of another human being, but is “already a whole, living member of the human family.”

He illustrated this by contrasting embryos with ordinary body cells. While skin cells are alive and contain DNA, they are merely part of a larger organism. Embryos, by contrast, are complete organisms in their earliest stage of development.

Next, he addressed the issue of human value, arguing that dignity is not based on size, development, intelligence, or dependency. He warned that if those traits determined worth, then human equality would collapse.

“If physical development gives us value and you’ve got more of it than me, then you have a greater right to life than me,” he said.

He pointed the audience to the acronym SLED: Size, Level of development, Environment, and Degree of dependency. These, he argued, are the only differences between an embryo and an adult — and none justify killing.

“There’s no essential difference between you, the embryo, and you, the adult, that would justify killing you at that earlier stage of development,” he said.

The Bottom Line:

Klusendorf concluded by encouraging listeners in their duty to stand for the unborn and to remain steadfast despite criticism. He acknowledged the social cost of holding a pro-life position when it seems as if society is against you.

“Do you want to be liked in this world or rewarded in the next?” he asked.

"It's okay if the world hates us. Jesus said the world would hate us. Don't let that turn you away from being a good witness for Christ."