Kristan Hawkins, president, Students for Life of America
Much to the chagrin of the aging “pro-choice” generation of women, today’s advocate for the unborn is young, hip, on fire for life – and female.
In an op-ed appearing on FoxNews.com, Students for Life of America president Kristan Hawkins says DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz was dead wrong in a recent interview when she claimed that millennial women aren’t pushing for abortion “rights” because they’ve become complacent after living their entire lives in an era of legalized abortion.
“She’s wrong,” Hawkins writes. “Young women not only aren’t complacent about abortion but they are against it entirely.”
The numbers prove her point. “Voters under 30-years-old were once the most ardent abortion supporters. In 1991, 36 percent of 18-29-year-olds believed abortion should be legal in all circumstances,” she reports.
“Yet in 2010, only 24 percent of the same age group believed abortion should remain legal in all circumstances, making this generation more pro-life than their parents. In addition, millennials are the age group that is most in favor of a ban on abortions after 20 weeks, at 52 percent.”
Lila Rose, founder, LiveAction
She added: “In 10 years, student pro-life groups have skyrocketed from 180 to over 930, more than 31,000 students have been trained, and we’ve taken the Planned Parenthood Project to more than 200 campuses.”
This generation of women may have grown up with Roe v. Wade, but they’ve also been exposed to technology that proves the unborn aren’t just “blobs of tissue.”
“This generation grew up seeing the ultrasound photos of babies in the womb and knew they were just that – babies, not blobs of tissue. Yet this is only the beginning because the tide is turning and these young women, these Millennials, are indeed the face of the pro-life movement.”
One reason so many female millennials are leading the charge against abortion is because of the so-called “intensity gap” – a phrase coined by former NARAL president Nancy Keenan in 2010 when she correctly noted that young pro-life women are much more passionately pro-life than pro-choicers are about being pro-choice.
Hawkins sees evidence of this intensity gap all the time in her work educating young women on college campuses on how to be more effective in the fight for life.
For example, last year in Washington State, with only a day’s notice, dozens of young, pro-life students descended at the state capitol to testify at a hearing on a parental notification law.
“Planned Parenthood panicked when they saw our students and sent out an email to local supporters, urging them to please show up – and some did, retirees mostly, which was a great contrast to our young men and women sitting in the room.”
This could explain why some of today’s most powerful pro-life leaders are millennials.
David Daleiden, the pro-life activist who released undercover videos exposing Planned Parenthood executives discussing the sale of baby body parts is only 26 years old.
Lila Rose, another Millennial, who founded LiveAction, a pro-life organization that has conducted numerous investigative projects exposing the nefarious underbelly of the abortion industry, is only 27.
Abby Johnson, the former Planned Parenthood Director who exposed the organization’s inner workings, is just 36.
Hawkins herself was just 21 when she launched Students for Life of America in 2006.
“Roe v. Wade will be overturned,” Hawkins predicts, “and Millennials, much to the disappointment of Debbie Wasserman Schultz and her friends, will be the ones leading the charge.”
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