Charlie Kirk Debates College Students on Abortion and College Education at Jubilee Middle Ground Event

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Charlie Kirk Debates College Students on Abortion and College Education at Jubilee Middle Ground Event

Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, squares off against twenty college students in a Jubilee debate covering abortion, gender studies, and whether college is a scam. Kirk argues that abortion is murder regardless of conception circumstances, while students challenge him on exceptions for rape, incest, and the mother's life. The conversation shifts to education value, with Kirk claiming most college degrees are worthless while defending classical liberal arts. Students push back on his bad faith tactics, including his refusal to engage with pedophilia analogies and his pivot strategies when cornered on moral consistency.

Categories: Liberal Opinions
September 9, 2024

The Abortion Debate: No Exceptions Allowed

Charlie Kirk begins by establishing definitions with the students, getting them to agree that abortion is "the forcible ending of the viability of a being in utero" and that murder is "the intentional taking of life." One student, identifying as Catholic, concedes she believes abortion is murder but doesn't think it's her place to judge others. Kirk immediately pounces on this contradiction, pointing out that society cannot accept murder as permissible regardless of personal beliefs.

The debate intensifies when students bring up IUDs and Plan B, arguing that preventing implantation of a fertilized egg should be considered murder under Kirk's framework. Kirk attempts to distinguish between preventing progesterone production and terminating a fertilized being, though the logic becomes muddled. When pressed on whether women using IUDs are murderers, Kirk pivots rather than directly answering.

The Ten-Year-Old Rape Victim Question

A student poses what she clearly believes is a gotcha question: Would Kirk force his hypothetical ten-year-old daughter to carry a pregnancy resulting from rape to term? Kirk doesn't hesitate, biting the bullet and answering yes, the baby would be delivered. He argues that how a person was conceived is irrelevant to their human rights, comparing it to First and Second Amendment protections that don't depend on one's origins.

The student appears shocked by this answer, becoming emotional and arguing about the torture the child would endure. Kirk remains firm, stating that the West's greatness comes from doing good after evil, not compounding evil with more evil through abortion. When the student dismisses the fetus as "just cells," Kirk repeatedly attempts to respond but she talks over him. The exchange ends with the student making a personal attack, saying she hopes Kirk's daughter "gets away from" him.

C-Sections as the Solution

When students raise concerns about pregnancies that threaten the mother's life, Kirk offers what he believes is a simple solution: C-sections. He claims that C-sections are safer than abortion procedures and can resolve situations where the pregnancy poses risks to the mother. Students challenge this oversimplification, pointing out that C-sections are major surgery with significant complication rates including hemorrhaging, infection, and injured organs.

Kirk seems unfamiliar with the actual risks and complications of C-section delivery, treating it as a casual alternative that simply involves going "right below the belly button" to deliver the baby. Medical facts contradict his assertions, with OB-GYNs warning that C-sections should not be chosen unnecessarily due to increased risks of blood clotting, infection, and other complications compared to vaginal delivery when possible.

Bad Faith Debate Tactics on Display

Throughout the debate, Kirk employs several tactics that appear designed to avoid engaging with difficult arguments. When a student brings up the analogy of pedophilia being normalized in past societies, asking whether those who married children should be prosecuted despite cultural norms, Kirk initially tries to avoid the question by demanding specific legal citations and dates.

When the student persists, explaining that child marriage was legal throughout early American history and biblical times, Kirk demands to know which "levitical law" permits marrying children and asks for specific verse numbers. The student accurately describes biblical requirements involving physical and emotional maturity without citing exact verses. Rather than engage with the substantive point about moral relativism versus absolute standards, Kirk abruptly pivots to asking when life begins.

This pattern repeats throughout: when confronted with challenging arguments, Kirk either demands hyper-specific factual information, changes the subject entirely, or accuses students of employing "red herrings" while simultaneously using the same tactic himself.

The College Scam Argument

Kirk shifts topics to argue that college is a scam, defining it specifically as traditional four-year colleges excluding community and technical schools. He claims the majority of students either don't get jobs or get jobs that don't require college degrees, making the investment a waste of time and money. An economics major student pushes back, arguing that skills learned in college transfer to various careers even if not directly related to one's major.

Kirk tests the student by asking him to discuss Milton Friedman, Thomas Sowell, and Ludwig von Mises. The exchange highlights a common conservative talking point: that college doesn't teach practical knowledge. However, Kirk himself exists entirely in the liberal arts realm of political commentary and communications, the very fields he criticizes as worthless.

The Gender Studies Distraction

Kirk repeatedly brings up gender studies as an example of worthless college majors, asking students if men can give birth and claiming colleges teach that "birthing persons" can be male. Students attempt to engage with more nuanced discussions of gender versus sex, but Kirk frames these as evidence that college is ideological indoctrination rather than education.

One student makes the practical argument that even if only ten people want to major in gender studies, why should that matter? Society needs diverse fields of study, and not everyone can or should be doctors and lawyers. Kirk doesn't substantively respond to this point, instead continuing to use gender studies as a punching bag for broader criticisms of higher education.

The Taxation Pivot

When a student reveals she's attending college on scholarship, Kirk tries to frame this as problematic. The student flips the script, pointing out that after graduation she'll pay taxes that fund other people's education, just as taxes currently fund roads, welfare, corporate tax breaks, and other public goods. Kirk's only response is "welcome to taxation," seemingly conceding the point that collective investment in education follows the same logic as other public expenditures.

Moral Consistency and Religious Foundations

A fundamental tension emerges in Kirk's arguments: he presents religiously-grounded absolute moral positions while simultaneously trying to avoid their most politically unpopular implications. He believes abortion is murder in all cases, including rape and incest, because the circumstances of conception don't change the humanity of the fetus. This is logically consistent with a religious worldview where moral truth is unchanging.

However, when pushed on whether women who have abortions should be prosecuted for murder, Kirk retreats, claiming they've been "deceived by mass culture" and only abortion providers should face legal consequences. This creates an inconsistency: if abortion is truly murder, the person choosing to have one is the murderer, not just the doctor performing it. Kirk wants the moral weight of calling abortion murder without the political liability of advocating for prosecuting women.

The Format and Its Limitations

The Jubilee "Surrounded" format features Kirk in the center with twenty students around him, each approaching to make their argument before the group votes whether they stay or return to the outer circle. This structure inherently favors Kirk, who controls the conversational flow and can pivot away from difficult topics by simply engaging with a different student's raised flag.

Students struggle to maintain focus on single arguments, often getting sidetracked by Kirk's diversionary questions or letting him reframe debates on his preferred terms. The most effective student challenges come when they refuse to let Kirk escape difficult questions, like the pedophilia normalization analogy that exposes tensions in his moral framework. However, even these moments end with Kirk finding an exit rather than fully engaging with the implications.

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