By Kathleen Gilbert
The pro-life movement in America is growing in leaps and bounds, attracting young, zealous women to defend the unborn in droves - a fact that even the president of NARAL has now admitted.
NARAL's Nancy Keenan told Newsweek last week that she considers herself a member of the "postmenopausal militia" – a phrase that captures the situation of pro-abortion leaders who are aging across the board, including the leadership of Planned Parenthood, and the National Organization for Women. Newsweek's Sarah Kliff notes that "these leaders will retire in a decade or so."
Keenan also remarked on the enormity of this year's March for Life in Washington, D.C., and, according to Newsweek, is troubled that such passion has faded among the youth on her side of the movement.
"I just thought, my gosh, they are so young," Keenan said about stumbling on this year’s March for Life in Washington. "There are so many of them, and they are so young."
While March for Life estimates it drew 400,000 pro-lifers to Washington for this year's March, Planned Parenthood's "Stop Stupak" rally in December only drew about 1,300 attendees.
In addition, Newsweek revealed that NARAL's own research on American youth shows more reason for Keenan to worry: a survey conducted by the group found that, while 51 percent of pro-life voters under 30 considered abortion a "very important" voting issue, only 26 percent of abortion supporters in the same demographic felt similarly.
"Keenan is right to be worried," commented Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America, to LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) this week.
"As more evidence proves the humanity of unborn babies and pain that abortion causes mothers and babies, more people will be pro-life," Wright said, adding that "pro-abortionists motivate by anger; pro-lifers are motivated by love" - a fact that appeals "especially to a generation that is desperate for the bonds of family."
"That's exactly what we see every day on college campuses," said Hawkins. "We'll have pro-choice groups that spring up in reaction to the pro-life groups that are started on campus and those groups, they last maybe a year. The only purpose they serve is to be reactionary towards our pro-life students."
Hawkins noted that groups such as Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and the Feminist Majority Network struggle to maintain campus chapters. "They all are incredibly well-funded, have a lot more money than Students for Life of America, yet none of them can [keep] active groups," she said.
"More and more, this generation treats abortion as a fundamental human rights violation," said Hawkins.
Katie Walker, Communications Director of the American Life League, has already made several appearances on television news shows as a spokesperson for the pro-life cause – and she only recently turned 24.
“Nancy Keenan and her aging ‘postmenopausal militia’ should be shaking in their combat boots," Walker told LSN. "Poll after poll has confirmed what the pro-life movement has known for a long time – young people are pro-life – young women especially are pro-life.
"Despite the pro-abortion movement’s stranglehold on the entertainment media, our educational institutions, our laws – they’re selling an unsustainable bill of goods. They’re asking us to deny our womanhood and our femininity in exchange for a selfish me-first philosophy that has led too many of our friends, too many of our mothers to pain and suffering in the aftermath of their abortions, their divorces, their joyless corporate climb."
Young women, said Walker, "aren’t looking at the Nancy Keenans of the world and thinking – 'I want to be just like her some day.'" "They’re looking at the joy that comes with selflessly embracing life and human rights and dignity," she said.
"As Alice Von Hildebrand says – every woman whether single or married is called to be a mother in some way. Most young women I know, myself included, are looking at the joy on the faces of the young mothers in our lives and thinking – 'I want to be just like THAT some day.'
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