Abortion Is Threshold Issue for 1 in 6 U.S. Voters

Posted on October 5, 2012 by Kristan Hawkins

A new Gallup poll finds one in six registered voters (17%) saying they will vote only for candidates for major office who share their own views on abortion. The poll, taken on Spetember 24-27, 2012, also finds another 45% of voters saying abortion will be one of the important factors they consider in voting. This is one the highest percentages Gallup has seen in recent years. Pro-life voters are also more likely to say abortion is a major issue to them. By 49% to 43%, pro-life voters are more likely to say they will consider a candidate’s position on abortion as one of the important factors in arriving at their vote choice. Read more at GALLUP.com.

Kristan Hawkins, President of Students for Life of America, remarked “Despite what some in the press may say, now more than ever, voters are showing that LIFE is the issue upon which all other issues depend and will be important when determining which candidates deserve their votes. Abortion is not an issue that can simply be erased out of the conscience of Americans. This is why Students for Life has co-founded the I Vote Pro-Life First Coalition to ask all Americans to pledge to only vote for candidates who believe in the intrinsic value of all human life and sign-up to be a get out the pro-life vote this election. Many elections this November will come down to only a few hundred votes, and we must make sure our voices, who represent those 54 million Americans killed through legal abortion, are heard. Students for Life of America is recruiting 1,500 volunteers who will call or knock on the doors of 300,000 Americans before election day to personally deliver this message. ”

The 2012 election will be the most important in our lifetime. That is why it is vital for pro-life voters to join with us in SFLA’s “I Vote Pro-Life First” Campaign today. Sign up to be a get out the pro-life vote volunteer! You have the responsibility to vote and encourage others to always vote pro-life.

Memo to the Pro-Life Movement

Posted on July 23, 2012 by Kristan Hawkins

By: Kristan Hawkins, Executive Director, Students for Life of America

This June, Students for Life of America released the results of a nationwide study, in which we surveyed 805 18-24 year olds about the upcoming 2012 election, unconstitutional HHS Mandate, and abortion. We knew that a lot of folks tend to try to put young people in a neat little box when it comes to the issue of abortion, but, with this rising generation, we knew we had to shed some light into how they are really thinking and the changing of this debate.

The Good News…

Their whole lives this generation has been told that identifying themselves as “pro-life” is judgmental, extremist, and wrong. Yet, when asked questions about their beliefs on the legality of abortion: 44% were pro-life and 45% pro-choice, and they were more likely to view abortion as a “bad thing” (31%) rather than a “good thing” (17%). In the addition, the plurality, 27%, selected “abortion should only be legal in the cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother” as the position most similar to own position on abortion.

This generation is not radical in their support of abortion and takes much more of a common sense approach to the issue than President Obama and Planned Parenthood with an overwhelming majority favoring common sense abortion regulations:

89% favored requiring abortionists to follow the same medical and safety protocols as other surgical clinics
84% favored requiring abortion facilities to warn women of seeking abortions of potential health risks
76% favored allowing pregnant women to view sonograms before undergoing an abortion
74% support making sex-selection abortions illegal in United States
70% agreed with offering a woman the opportunity to anesthetize her child before the abortion procedure

We are winning the HHS Mandate issue. When young Americans were asked whether the federal government should force institutions to pay for procedures that offend their religious beliefs, the plurality (44%) disagreed with the Obama’s administration’s move.

The Bad News…

We need to educate this generation more on what conscience protections are and who is permitted to have them. The youth surveyed were split on whether medical students should be permitted to object to procedures or drugs for conscience reasons, although this age group was 8 points more likely to agree (44%) than disagree (36%).

What they don’t know is literally killing this generation as 58% admitted that they didn’t know where resources were in their community or campus to support a woman facing an unplanned pregnancy who didn’t want to undergo an abortion.

Planned Parenthood still has the upper-hand when it comes to targeting and deceiving this generation. Our study found that young people supported Planned Parenthood by a ratio of six to one (66% “favorable” vs. 11% “unfavorable”), with two in five (40%) calling themselves “strongly favorable.” The plurality of even those who identify as Conservative (44%) and Pro-Life (46%) were even “favorable” towards Planned Parenthood. Even more shocking for those of in the pro-life movement is that fact that 48% said they did not know whether or not Planned Parenthood offered abortions.

The controversial “morning-after” pill appears to have been accepted by the majority of 18-24 year olds. Three in five (60% ) even believe that the medication should be available via vending machines, meaning no human interaction or counseling would be needed before obtaining it. Support for Plan B in vending machines and the high percentage of Planned Parenthood supporters who are unaware of the organization’s abortion services suggest that this generation is “Pro-Contraception,” but not necessarily “Pro-Abortion.”

Where we Must Focus our Attention….

Expose

In the study, respondents’ favorability towards Planned Parenthood was a strong indicator of whether they believed the organization to be an abortion provider. Those who were unfavorable towards Planned Parenthood were much more likely than its supporters to know about their abortion services (69% to 40%). If we are going to succeed in putting the abortion Goliath out of business, defunding taxpayer money and reducing market demand, we must step up our efforts to educate Planned Parenthood’s clientele about their deceptive business model.

Only 9% of survey respondents selected President Obama’s and Planned Parenthood’s position on abortion as their own stating that “abortion should be allowed at any time during a woman’s pregnancy and for any reason.” We must expose the President’s radical view on abortion, as simply that…before November.

Promote

When asked what resources would compel pregnant women to carry their unintended pregnancies to term, support from families, support from the child’s father, ability to continue to work or go to school, help with child care, information about adoption, and scholarships to help with financial demands were all chosen more than 50% of the time by study respondents. These figures along with the fact that 58% of young people admitted that they didn’t know where resources where in their community or campus to support a woman facing an unplanned pregnancy who didn’t want an abortion tells us we must do a better job of reaching out to the most vulnerable demographic, college-aged women, and telling them what resources and support structures exist for them and their children.

Educate

In order to abolish abortion in our lifetime, we need to make sure the trend towards becoming pro-life continues for this generation, making sure they understand current abortion laws, continue to see ultrasound images bringing the humanity of the pre-born front and center, and raising up the voices of those who regret their abortions.

The pro-abortion movement sees this generational shift away from tolerating surgical abortion and has increasingly been investing their time into promoting abortions earlier in pregnancy and pills to end the life of the pre-born child. We must step up our work talking about the abortion-causing mechanisms and serious health risks to women in drugs like Plan B and Ella that the FDA has falsely labeled as mere contraception.

The plurality (42%) of those interviewed, including every major demographic and geographic groups, said they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who supports forcing institutions to pay for procedures that violate their conscience or religious beliefs. And when talking to young people about the HHS mandate, raising the unintended consequences of the mandate – such as religious organizations dropping healthcare entirely or being able to only hire only employees of a particular faith – were persuasive in changing the minds of young Americans on this constitutional issue. Hispanics and political moderates, groups that usually favor the political left, show real hesitation toward the HHS Mandate. We must educate this generation about the Obama administration’s unconstitutional HHS Mandate and how it effects real Americans.

In 2010, NARAL/Pro-Choice America’s own poll of 700 youth found that 51% of pro-lifers under 30 called abortion a “very important” voting issue, compared with only 26% of those in the same age group who were pro-abortion. When announcing her retirement in 2012 as NARAL/Pro-Choice America’s President, Nancy Keenan cited this important study saying her departure from the pro-abortion organization will help foster a new generation of pro-abortion young leaders.

I’ve got news for Nancy Kennan, she can retire and so can Cecile Richards and every other pro-abortion leader, because that won’t raise a new generation of pro-abortion leaders. The humanity of the pre-born child has been brought to the forefront of the debate. And while we still have a long way to go to expose, promote, and educate in our movement, the simple fact is that being pro-abortion is going out of style, being pro-life is in. And if Students for Life of America has anything to do it with it, Nancy’s organization and others like it won’t be around for too much longer.

Voting Pro-Life: an issue, or a responsibility?

Posted on July 18, 2012 by Kristan Hawkins

Voting Pro-Life: an issue, or a responsibility?

By: Catherine Phillips, Students for Life of America’s 2012 Missionary for Life

I used to cringe at the accusation that I am a “one-issue voter,” and I still don’t like being called that. It carries such a negative connotation, and I make a deliberate effort to be an informed, tolerant, and concerned citizen. I would not say that I am a one-issue voter; instead, I vote my according to my conscience, and my conscience puts life first. I don’t think it is at all ignorant to put the issue of life first. In fact, I happen to believe (and think you should too) that if we are really pro-life, our first consideration in a candidate should be their stance on abortion. The following is a brief defense of that position, and why it matters in the 2012 election.

Here’s a scenario: Say there was a candidate who had made incredible strides for the nation, through improving the economy, reducing national debt dramatically, solving much of our education crisis, and more. He possessed a brilliant mind, compassionate presence, and tactful strategy that made him beloved and highly respected. But, what he had accomplished was all due in large part to hundreds of thousands of slaves who were unpaid and worked in factories across the nation under horrific conditions. Would you vote him into office?

I know this is a fictional and quite extreme scenario, but it begs the question: Is there really any amount of good that can justify an inherent evil? And can we really in good conscience vote for a candidate who supports an inherent evil, despite any amount of good that he has done or will do?

I don’t have space in this blog post to make anywhere near a complete case against abortion, and why it is inherently wrong. But if you are already even somewhat convinced that abortion is wrong, voting pro-life matters. And keep in mind that 92% of abortions in America are elective—that is, chosen by healthy women to end the lives of healthy children (and that is according to the Guttmacher Institute, the abortion industry’s own research arm).

Foreign policy, the economy, job creation, education, immigration, national security, healthcare etc. These issues definitely matter, and as voters, we should weigh our decisions around these issues very carefully. However, decisions around these issues are not black and white, that is, they’re not always right or always wrong. Good people can hold varying opinions on what is best for the country and the American people.

Abortion, on the other hand, comes down to the question: do you truly believe that abortion is wrong? Here’s the thing. If we really deeply believe that all human life has intrinsic value, and that abortion is always wrong, there is no way we can, in good conscience, vote for a candidate who supports abortion.

Again, the essential question is: is abortion an injustice or not? If the taking of 3,700 preborn lives every day is something we believe needs to be stopped, we cannot justify voting for a candidate who does not see it as an injustice, just as we could not vote for the fictional candidate who was a hero to the country and yet participated in modern-day slavery. Or suppose that in the scenario the candidate refused to prosecute rapists, or child abusers. We wouldn’t even think of voting for a person who tolerated such flawed policies! So why do we allow ourselves to justify the innately flawed worldview that abortion is tolerable? A pro-choice politician may have some seemingly genius ideas, but I just don’t think I can trust him or her to make decisions on behalf of all the American people when they will not even acknowledge that preborn people have the right not to be killed.

It truly is difficult to own the statement “I vote pro-life first.” But I hope that you will be able to courageously deflect whatever criticism you may receive from others with the conviction that protecting human life matters more than any other issue. Respecting life is not a political “issue”…it is a human responsibility.

Finally, this human responsibility to protect life will never be more important than in the 2012 election. Barack Obama is the most pro-abortion President we have ever had, and that is no secret. NARAL, an organization devoted to protecting and extending abortion rights nationwide, has given him a 100% rating every year on his pro-choice views, and he and Planned Parenthood (which does 27% of all U.S. abortions) are inextricably tied together. The last four years in this country he has taken actions to immensely expand the abortion industry’s reach. Additionally, passing of Obamacare is the largest expansion of abortion rights since Roe v. Wade. I encourage everyone to do some research on Obama’s radical support for abortion, and to really think about where you stand before this November. Because if you stand for life, your vote will matter.

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