The mainstream media’s view on abortion and politics is that students and young adults are overwhelmingly pro-choice and support abortion-loving candid
But pro-life students like those involved with Students for Life Action have shown that this generation is energized and organized to abolish abortion. Just months into 2020, pro-life students across the nation have mobilized to push for an abolition of abortion, in places as different as New York and Nebraska.
Students for Life Action is training the Pro-Life Generation – virtually – nationwide, and those sheltering at home are learning that their phone skills can be put to use making get-out-the vote calls in a critical election that has taken a back seat in coverage to the coronavirus crisis. Just this weekend, about 5,000 calls went into key states, the first of many call days planned. As Election Day approaches, students with time on their hands are gearing up.
In Florida, for example, Students for Life members from Florida Atlantic University traveled to a city council meeting in Port St. Lucie to join with other pro-life groups to speak out against a proposed new Planned Parenthood facility. Pro-life Florida students have also been active gathering in Tallahassee to push for parental consent legislation in the state, which would require a parent or adult guardian be involved in a teenage girl’s decision to abort her child. The students have been active for more than a year to make sure their voices are heard.
New York pro-life students have not been content to let pro-choice politicians have their radical policies go unchallenged, either. Last year, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed legislation that legalized abortion through all nine months of pregnancy and then ordered the One World Trade Center to be lit up in Planned Parenthood pink. Students in New York began pushing counties to pass resolutions that declare their county is pro-life and oppose the Reproductive Health Act.
Likewise, Maryland students were not deterred by their state’s reputation for liberalism, as they recently traveled to the state capital to speak out against assisted suicide.
In Nebraska, our Students for Life leaders recently spoke out in favor of ending dismemberment abortions in the state. Those students know that one state can start a snowball effect of protecting human life and exposing the brutal truth of what happens during abortions. Same with their neighbors in Kansas; those pro-life students recently traveled to their state capital and organized others to advocate for a state Constitutional amendment that would ensure voters set abortion policy in Kansas, not activist judges.
While these stories may surprise the mainstream media, they should not surprise anyone who is paying close attention to polling of students and young adults.
A 2017 poll by Quinnipiac reinforces that young adults and students are pro-life. For example, 49% of 18-to-34 year-olds said they would support a ban on late-term abortions in their state, if they had the opportunity to support it.
These results show that when students and young adults are asked to think through the implications of what abortion is, they overwhelmingly take a pro-life view.
Heading into 2020, one thing is clear: the Pro-Life Generation is energized to abolish abortion, and they want to see candidates who support their right to vote on pro-life policies and have their voices heard.
After all, a poll by Students for Life’s own Institute of Pro-Life Advancement found that 65% of Millennials want the right to vote on abortion policy, a right that has been all but taken away completely by Roe v. Wade. Another 70% of Millennials support specific limits on abortion, such as late-term abortion prohibitions and parental notification.
And a Knights of Columbus-Marist poll this January found that even 40% of pro-choice voters want a candidate that supports some limits on abortion. The same poll found that 65% of Americans are more likely to vote for a candidate who supports ending abortions after the first trimester.
The Pro-Life Generation also understands the importance of the Supreme Court in reversing Roe and getting our right to vote on the issue of abortion back from nine unelected judges. That's why Students for Life was active in supporting the confirmation of both Justice Neil Gorsuch and Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
This generation wants to see abortion abolished and women and families protected. The media and 2020 candidates would be smart to pay attention to what the pro-life generation is saying.