On Wednesday, Democrat National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz—as zealous a devotee to pro-abortion dogma as anyone—raised eyebrows for a statement she made on the current generation’s passion for abortion-on-demand in an interview with New York Times Magazine:
Q: Do you notice a difference between young women and women our age in their excitement about Hillary Clinton? Is there a generational divide?
A: Here’s what I see: a complacency among the generation of young women whose entire lives have been lived after Roe v. Wade was decided.
Curiously, Wasserman Schultz’s fellow pro-aborts were among the most offended:
- Planned Parenthood Action Fund executive vice president Dawn Laguens: “There are millions of young women and men across the country who would disagree at the idea that they’re apathetic. Whether it’s organizing a ‘shout your abortion’ movement, or the millions who took action across the country this past September in Pink Out Day, one thing is clear: Young people care deeply about their reproductive health and rights, and are hellbent on making sure they’re protected.”
- Feminist Majority Foundation founder Eleanor Smeal: “I love Debbie Wasserman Schultz, but I do disagree with her on this […] The young people not only turn out, they turn out bigger, and they vote consistently overwhelmingly for reproductive choice.”
- URGE executive director Kierra Johnson: “Not only are young people engaged in pro-choice activism, but they’re embracing abortion as something positive. They are more unapologetic about it and are really frustrated with many politicians including pro-choice ones who let abortion be used as a bargaining chip in legislative negotiations.”
Feeling the heat, Wasserman Schultz walked it back later in the day:
I want to be clear about this: Many in *my generation* got complacent after Roe, thinking the fight for safe, legal abortion was over. Millennials know that wasn’t the case – they are leaders in the fight to protect abortion rights. They know progress isn’t final. They’ve also been leaders in advancing marriage equality, expanding health care, and so many other huge, consequential battles. But even when we’ve achieved big victories, like with Obamacare, we continue to see the other side try to roll back progress. Remaining vigilant is not only important in our fight to protect & advance women’s equality, it is essential to defend all our victories. The mantle must be carried by each generation. We have 10 months to elect the next Democratic president. Let’s keep fighting, together.
That’s gotta be some kind of record for quickest surrender from a party leader.
In any event, Debbie was right about young people the first time (if wrong about the reason why). It’s telling that she assumes the reason the current generation isn’t more adamant about the need to kill their kids must be because they already agree with her so much they assume abortion must be safe. But that’s not the case at all—in June, the Boston Globe’s Jeff Jacoby wrote:
Young Americans — voters under 30 — were once the most gung-ho in support of unfettered legal abortion. In 1991, fully 36 percent believed abortion should be legal under any circumstances. But by 2010, 18-to-29-year-olds had become more pro-life than their parents — only 24 percent still wanted to keep abortion legal in all cases. More than any other age cohort, in fact, young adults are now the most likely to think abortion should be illegal in all circumstances.
Indeed, Wasserman’s theory that their inaction stems from a false sense of security is hard to square with the fact that their media and celebrities are constantly telling them abortion is both the key to their freedom and under relentless attack from religious nutjobs who want to enslave them.
More importantly, her observation that this generation has lived their entire lives in a post-Roe country is more true than she realizes. That means they’ve grown up seeing firsthand the ways abortion has physically and emotionally tortured friends, classmates, mothers, and sisters.
It means they’ve grown up with much clearer facts about how alive the preborn really are readily available to them.
It means they’ve seen countless prenatal images of abortion’s victims, humanizing these babies to the point where the current generation can’t discount them as organic waste as casually as the DNC wants them to.
It means forty years’ worth of pro-life thought, argument, love, and support—and forty years’ worth of pro-abortion lies, crimes, and outrages—are also in the mix, giving them a more informed and balanced understanding of the issue.
In short, Madam Chair, it’s not complacency keeping today’s young women from championing Hillary Clinton and abortion-on-demand in the numbers you want…quite the opposite, in fact. It’s precisely because so many of them are passionate—passionate about saving preborn children from the violence of your agenda.
