Rhetorical Activity

Rhetoric is used everywhere, in all kinds of situations. When I think of rhetoric I think about debating between each side of an issue. Just recently I witnessed two individuals having the age old debate of abortion and whether it is right or wrong. One individual held the pro life point of view while the other held the pro choice. Having read about rhetoric in the textbook, I found myself paying particular attention to this argument; I usually tend to stay clear of such topics, because there is no way of coming to an answer.
I was surprised to see the two counterparts not just offering opinions to argue their points. Each one had facts specific to their stance on the subject. In many cases this sort of discussion turns into a yelling match, where one uses their own opinions to try to convince the other that they are wrong. In this argument, more like an actual debate, however, the two were offering up facts to substantiate their opinions on the matter. Without saying what my stance is on the issue, I will say that each person was very convincing in their arguments, and had a lot of great examples to back up their claims on each of their points of view.
While the typical debate on a topic such as abortion normally turns into an argument with one party bad mouthing the other, this debate was actually quite interesting to listen to and one of the first times I had ever seen facts used towards a moral debate.