Soothing Pro-Abortion Anxieties

By Dave Andrusko

Pro-abortion feminists have openly worried for some time about the "graying" of their movement. They even make grim jokes about what NARAL president Nancy Keenan calls herself--a member of the "postmenopausal militia."

But a Newsweek article last month no doubt ratcheted up the anxiety level several notches with a story that ran under the headline that read, "Remember Roe! How can the next generation defend abortion rights when they don't think abortion rights need defending?" [www.newsweek.com/id/236506].

I wrote about it, zeroing in with some quotes from Keenan:

"And what worries Keenan is that she just doesn't see a passion among the post-Roe generation--at least, not among those on her side. This past January, when Keenan's train pulled into Washington's Union Station, a few blocks from the Capitol, she was greeted by a swarm of anti-abortion-rights activists. It was the 37th annual March for Life, organized every year on Jan. 22, the anniversary of Roe. 'I just thought, my gosh, they are so young,' Keenan recalled.

'There are so many of them, and they are so young. March for Life estimates it drew 400,000 activists to the Capitol this year."

By contrast a rally two months earlier in support of lacing ObamaCare with deadly abortion-promoting ingredients "had about 1,300 attendees. "
http://www.nrlc.org/News_and_Views/April10/nv041910.html

So, dutifully taking up its self-assigned role as confidante to the pro-abortion Movement, Newsweek took the next step. If younger pro-aborts and their older cohorts are not connecting, let's facilitate a "spirited and informative debate online, where abortion rights activists of all ages discussed what role younger women play in the movement and what the future of that movement looks like."

You can read the back-and-forth yourself at http://www.newsweek.com/id/237137/output/print, so let me make three quick comments.

First, the high anxiety stemmed from (as Kliff wrote last month)"New NARAL research, conducted earlier this year and released exclusively to NEWSWEEK, [which] only amplified Keenan's fears. A survey of 700 young Americans showed there was a stark 'intensity gap' on abortion. More than half (51 percent) of young voters (under 30) who opposed abortion rights considered it a 'very important' voting issue, compared with just 26 percent of abortion-rights supporters; a similar but smaller gap existed among older voters, too."

But if you read the study itself, you come away with the unmistakable impression that all is well, better than well. How can that be? Because the "Interested Parties" summary Greenberg Quinlan Rosner sent out neglects to point out the 2-1 intensity gap. Equally important, those were dry statistics. The NARAL focus groups were much worse, from the pro-abortion point of view, for many reasons, but perhaps most of all because the participants expected adults to be responsible for the consequences of their own behavior! (Where will it all end?)

Second, in the course of the email debate, something occurred that would be hysterically funny in any other context. Some of the younger bloggers said, hey, the "anti-choice" types have BOTH men and men on their side. To which a lady from NOW (to whom the notion of allowing men in the tent was obviously either a revelation or something she conceded for tactical purposes) too quickly exclaimed, "and men--great point."

Third and finally, the young pro-abortion women were tired, tired, and did I say tired? of "speaking to fear." By this they meant, as one put it, that "The dominant frame around abortion speaks to an experience that is negative" and "speaks to the past"--such as " Save Roe; Remember Roe; We Won't Go Back; Protect Women's Rights; Defend Choice," etc.

She had her own ideas about what pro-abortionists should do to "broaden our reach" (as Keenan described it), which included harassing crisis pregnancy centers and writing letters to member of Congress to tell them to "include abortion rights" in ObamaCare.

An enlightening exchange, actually, in which the older pro-abortion feminists were clearly determined to agree with their younger sisters (who wants to be irrelevant?) Take a few minutes and read the original Newsweek story, my TN&V take on it, and the latest Newsweek forum.
www.newsweek.com/id/236506; www.nrlc.org/News_and_Views/April10/nv041910.html; and www.newsweek.com/id/237137/output/print