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Nancy Keenan
Written by Julia Reticker-Flynn for RH Reality Check. This diary is cross-posted; commenters wishing to engage directly with the author should do so at the original post.
Another day, another article about whether or not Millennials care about access to safe abortion care, this time in the form of an interview with outgoing NARAL President Nancy Keenan in Salon in which the commitment of our generation to this issue is once again questioned.
It is time to put to rest the questioning about Millennials and whether they care about access to safe abortion care. It is time to get to work. Too much is at stake, too much ground has been lost, and, for far too many women, safe and affordable abortion care is out of their reach.
So, let’s set the record straight. Again.
Yes, Millennials care about ensuring access to safe, affordable abortion care. They care — deeply and passionately — and many are working tirelessly on this issue.
This generation of young people is more likely to care about the whole range of sexual health and rights issues than older generations. Whether we are talking about LGBT rights, contraception, or abortion, Millennials are taking center stage, and no one should doubt this or call it into question. This generation may just be the most pro-sexual health generation in U.S. history.
In fact, we find Millennials more supportive of access to abortion services in their communities — 68 percent compared with 58 percent adults overall. And, two thirds (67 percent) of Millennials of color agree that “regardless of how I personally feel about abortion, I believe it should remain legal, and women should be able to get safe abortions.” Three-quarters of African American (75 percent) and Asian Pacific Islanders (75 percent) young adults agree with the statement. Six in ten (59 percent) Latinos express support for legal abortion in response this question.
But even more important, Millennials are showing up on the front lines of this issue.
Millennials like Carly who did not stand by when anti-choice activists came to her campus but instead was motivated to build a strong base of support for abortion access at the University of Michigan. Carly has started facilitating small group sessions focused on discussing personal experiences with abortion and the ways to address stigma and promote access to safe abortion care. Millennials like Tyler and Eriauna at the University of Kentucky who are standing outside their local clinic every Saturday to ensure people can access services without fear or intimidation.
Millennials like Delilah and Jess at the University of Virginia who talk to their peers in the center of campus holding signs that read “1 in 3 women will have an abortion in her lifetime, these are our stories.”
From campus activists to clinic escorts to hotline volunteers to directors of abortion funds to doulas to bloggers to policy advocates, Millennials are fearless, bold and innovative activists in support of abortion care. We should not be ignored, and our commitment to abortion access should not be questioned.
The work of Millennials — and in fact of the entire movement — will continue to be strengthened if we spend less time asking where they are and more time continuing to train young people in grassroots organizing, to mentor new leaders, to fund their work, and most importantly to respect and value their skills, energy, and leadership.
Let’s get to work.
Photo from NARAL
7 Comments
The millenials are for life. It is anti-progressive to believe in making the womb a killing field.
What credentialed you to speak for millenials or progressives?
You don’t sound as though you belong to, or know anything about, either of those groups.
Horse puckies.
Democrats have moved to the right on the economy, business, campaign donations, etc. in order to get more votes from independents and Republicans. (Remember 2008′s “Obamacans?” And now, Obama self-identified as a “moderate Republican,” finally making clear that “New Democrat” pretty much means “old Republican.”)
However, New Democrats still lose the votes of some wingers based on some social issues, abortion being, IMO, the toughest of those issues.
So, Salon, an allegedly “progressive” website, now informs us that millennial progressives don’t really care about the availability of safe abortion. How very convenient for Democratic candidates.
A lot of women sure seemed to care when Virginia, North Carolina and Texas passed their mandatory sexual assault laws, requiring women to undergo trans-vaginal ultrasounds before being granted their federal Constitutional right to an abortion.
Democrats, including Salon’s Joan Walsh, sure milked that and the anti-abortion comments of two Republican candidates for all they were worth to get votes a couple of months ago. Seemed to work very well for them, too, even though it was all talk, no action. Take safe abortion away and see who really cares most about it. My guess is women who are capable of getting pregnant.
BTW, when abortion was illegal, so was a doctor so much as discussing contraception with a married couple. That was declared unconstitutional in Griswold v. Connecticut, not long before Roe v. Wade was decided.
So, exactly how far backward does Salon propose we go so that Democratic don’t have to answer questions they find awkward when they campaign before wingers? (Think Obama hemming and hawing in Rick Warren’s church in 2008.)
BTW, doesn’t “progressive,” mean “going forward” (whatever the hell that is supposed to mean)? So, why is supposedly progressive Salon trying to sell in the 21st century politics that liberals of the 1950s were rejected as outmoded, as well as wrong? And what’s next?
The real question is, do baby boomers care about reproductive healthcare :)
Millennials are far, far more progressive/liberal/reality-based/whatever than the leadership of the Democratic party.
Point taken. Most female baby boomers (like Nancy Keenan) stopped being fertile, much less interested in having babies, within the last few years.
Uh…I can’t be reading this right if the meaning is that baby boomers don’t support reproductive rights anymore because by and large we don’t have to stress out about pregnancy anymore.
It was the boomers that went into the streets and got New York State to legalize abortion in 1970, and supported Roe, and Planned Parenthood (the latter of which wasn’t even remotely controversial when we were in our 20s). Right along side us were women from the greatest generation and our grandmothers. They were not anti-abortion, not at all. They’d lived for decades with the confinement we were just starting to live with, and they didn’t want it for us any more than they’d wanted it for them.
The end of fertility doesn’t mean the end of support for women’s equality and fundamental freedom. Not in my generation. We full well recognize that’s what allowed us to get the hell out of the kitchen and into law school. And we have daughters and (some) even granddaughters and want them to have the freedom we had. We’re not going to turn our backs on reproductive rights just because we don’t need them any more than we’re going to go with “reforming” social security just because they only want to screw over people under 55, i.e. our same daughters and granddaughters.
Don’t worry, it’s a joke about making broad generalizations about people, particularly age groups. There is a common smear of Millennials by certain Powers that Be that we’re unmotivated/lazy/entitled/etc. to distract from the uncomfortable truth that what is wrong with our country is our leadership (a category of power almost universally denied to people under about 40 in this country).
Specifically on this issue, it’s hilarious that Nancy Keenan would call out young people, because it is precisely people like Keenan that have enabled the descent of reproductive healthcare into a world completely devoid of rational dialogue and evidence-based policy.
What did Keenan and other people like her ‘running’ organizations and in Congress and in media and so forth do when Obama said abortion isn’t a healthcare issue?
Nadda. Zip. Zilch.