Ann Bailey
Last week Nancy Keenan, head of NARAL Pro-Choice America, announced that, at the end of the year, she will be stepping down as president. The reason given for her departure is the organization’s need for a president and executive committee that has the ability to appeal to a younger generation of women who have never affiliated with or are leaving the “pro-choice” cause in droves.
Referencing a 2010 Newsweek article, Keenan noted her shock at being present at the annual March for Life in Washington D.C. This event draws hundreds of thousands of people each year and each year the crowd becomes more young and more female. Keenan opined after being there: “I just thought, my gosh, they are so young. There are so many of them and they are so young.”
Let’s give Keenan credit for acknowledging and acting upon her observation. NARAL also is reacting to their internal polling. A 2010 poll of 700 Americans found that 51 percent of pro-life voters under age 30 called abortion a “very important” voting issue, compared to only 26 percent of under-age-30 pro-abortion supporters who said the same. Intensity or passion for an issue will make the difference in the culture and in the public square. NARAL has a problem and they know it. Gallup polling also indicates trouble ahead for pro-abortion advocates.
But the pro-abortion folks aren’t going away. When Nancy Keenan announced her plan to step aside at year end, she also made known:
“I will work with my colleagues as we prepare to mark the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe vs. Wade. We have built an innovative initiative to engage and recruit even more members of the Millennial Generation to the pro-choice cause. We did this by listening and learning from younger people about their experiences and ideas for protecting choice in the next 40 years and beyond.”
NARAL has spent the last three years using surveys and focus groups to find a new way to convince young people to support abortion – time will tell it their efforts yield success. The good news: science and technology are on the side of the unborn and pro-abortion lies and half-truths will no longer go unchallenged. And, a generation of young people who have borne the brunt of decades of abortion-on-demand are now, thankfully, more amenable to making the right choice – life.