Students for Life President: This Young Generation Is the Most Pro-Life Since 1973
Even though conservatives suffered some major losses in the 2012 elections, in part due to losing the youth vote by a large margin, conservatives are winning the abortion issue among young voters, Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life, told The Christian Post Thursday.
Hawkins was at the Conservative Political Action Conference and spoke on a Friday panel about how conservatives can better communicate their message to young voters.
Today's young generation is the most pro-life generation since 1973, when abortion became legal, Hawkins explained, "because we've had a different experience with abortion. We've seen the ultrasounds of our brothers and sisters. We've googled abortion, we've seen the bloody images. We all know somebody who has had an abortion."
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Students for Life has 705 active student groups across the country. Most of them are on college campuses, including 40 medical schools. Just recently, the organization has begun a high school program as well.
Whereas Students for Life and other pro-life organizations are growing on campus, pro-choice college groups are dying, Hawkins said. The last time they counted, there were fewer than 150 active pro-choice groups on college campuses.
Even though today's youth are more pro-life than previous generations, they voted for Democrats in large numbers. President Barack Obama won 67 percent of the 18 to 29 age group.
"Younger people feel that liberals are more compassionate toward people with burdens, so they vote liberal," Hawkins explained.
When she speaks on college campuses, Hawkins said, she uses language that young people understand. So, she talks about abortion as a human rights and social justice issue because young people frequently use those terms to discuss the issues they care about.
One of the issues during the last election was whether Planned Parenthood should be able to continue to receive government funding, given that it is a pro-choice advocacy organization and the largest provider of abortions in the nation.
In surveys conducted by Students for Life, Hawkins discovered that 58 percent of students did not know that or were not sure whether Planned Parenthood performed abortions. When they find out, though, that Planned Parenthood performs abortions, support for the organization declines. One of Students for Life's new campaigns, therefore, will be to educate students about the ties between Planned Parenthood and abortion.
