As we recognize the 41st anniversary of the pivotal Supreme Court ruling of Roe v. Wade, thousands of professional, single 20-somethings will use their paid time off, or, in some cases, unpaid time off to travel to Washington, D.C., to give a voice to the voiceless. Their pencil skirts and neckties will remain in their closets while they don heavy winter coats to brave the harsh D.C. winter to tell Congress that they will continue to fight until the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is guaranteed for all Americans, as Thomas Jefferson so famously drafted almost 238 years ago.
For these participants of the March for Life, the result of Roe v. Wade was well-entrenched into American society by the time they were born. They were in grade school when then-President Bill Clinton declared that abortion should be “safe, legal, and rare,” and are beginning their careers whilst phrases such as “war on women” and “get your rosary off my ovaries” are commonplace. But despite the attempted indoctrination by those on the Left, their pro-life convictions only strengthen.
“Being a single woman who is pro-life attending the March for Life, I think I represent the segment of the population that many pro-choice advocates are targeting. By standing up for what I believe in, I am able to make a statement that says, not all young, single women think the way the world would like us to think.” says Ann DiGiorgio, 25, a graphics coordinator residing in Atlanta.
Allison Lattie, 30, Director of Crossroads Pro-Life, an organization based in Washington, D.C., dedicated to spreading the pro-life message both in the United States and abroad says, “As a single woman attending the March for Life, it is my opportunity to let the country and the world know to stop putting words in my mouth. What they claim that I, as a single woman, want and need is a lie.”
A 2013 Gallup poll found that most Americans (48%) identify themselves as pro-life (45% pro-choice, 7% undecided) which has been on a steady incline since the earliest report in 1996 when those who identified themselves as pro-life was at a mere 33%. While the age cohorts were not reported in this particular poll, the age cohorts in a 2010 Gallup poll were. In this poll, the 18-29 age cohort was the highest to choose the option that abortion should be “illegal in all circumstances” at 23%. Even the senior citizen cohort, which greatly outweighed the young adult cohort in the original 1975 poll in “illegal in all circumstances” opinion, came in at only 21% in 2010.
Perhaps in light of these Gallup poll statistics, in October of last year, Michigan Daily journalist Carly Manes argued that because so many women (1 in 3, she says) have had abortions, the stigma needs to be removed from American society. “For the past several years — and ever since the legalization of abortion in 1973, really — abortion hasn’t been about our experiences and the role abortion plays in our everyday lives; it has been about political ideologies and re-election campaigns,” said Manes. The grassroots campaign, dubbed “1 in 3: End the Stigma and the Shame” has worked tirelessly to do just that: end the stigma and make abortion socially acceptable.
However, abortion advocates have a long road ahead of them if they hope to ever make abortion socially acceptable. The facts do not lie; the 18-29 age cohort is more pro-life than ever and the numbers are growing. To these young adults, abortion is a reality that must be dealt with and the pro-life message must be spread. Kate Camden, 27, a marketing assistant from the Philadelphia area said, “I think it’s especially important for me, in the demographic that I am (single female in her 20s), to make this statement, that I am pro-life, since there seems to be a general idea that no one like me is pro-life… which is, obviously, false. It’s possible to be a woman who still values life and children, though I don’t have them. It’s possible to be young and single without seeing the life of others, especially children, as a burden. Our generation is notoriously disconnected and independent, but I think we all feel the negative effects of having forgotten to take care of each other.”
What has caused this generational shift and why does it seem to be ignored by mainstream media? A March 1, 2013, Washington Post opinion article by Helen Alvare and Meg T. McDonnell suggests that advances in science and technology have worked in the pro-life movement’s favor: “Embryology, genetics, neurology, not to mention ultrasound technology — they are probably responsible for the fact that none of the abortion-rights Web sites bothers any longer to attack the humanity of the unborn child,” writes Alvare and McDonnell.
Allison Lattie admits that she was not always pro-life, but can only speak from her own experience. “I wasn’t anti-life either, but I, like many people in our country, had a misconception of what pro-life means and what pro-lifers are trying to achieve… I didn’t truly understand the truth about abortions, but I didn’t feel that I was in a place to tell other people what to do in their lives. It was positive peer pressure that opened my eyes to the reality of abortion and the truth of pro-lifers.”
Despite the millions of dollars spent on pro-abortion marketing campaigns, the millennial generation is showing America that they are passionately pro-life and are here to stay. The reasons for their pro-life stance are various. Not only do they declare themselves as pro-life, but many are actively fighting for the rights of the unborn by attendance at the March for Life. Their presence has a deep meaning: that they are not who popular opinion says they are. When the pencil skirts and neckties are back on January 23 and the board meetings resume, yet another statement will have been made: We are here to stay, and we are a pro-life generation.
Brittany Higdon is a native of Strongsville, OH and has been residing in the Washington, DC area for the past six years. She holds a B.A. from Franciscan University of Steubenville and an M.Ed from the University of Virginia. She is a Reading Specialist at St. John Academy in McLean, VA and is passionate about Catholic education. When she is not teaching or writing, she is exploring the Smithsonian Museums, traveling, and playing with her ferocious Dachshund/Yorkie cross named Cannoli.
