Thousands of young people across America took to Twitter last night to speak out against abortion, setting the hashtag #prolifeyouth trending at number three in Washington.
The “tweetfest” was orgnised by ProLife Youth, a youth-led group created to oppose the media narrative that young people are not pro-life.
One of the first tenants of early feminism was being against abortion… what happened? #ProLifeYouth
— Por Polilla (@xpolilla) June 25, 2015
#ProLifeYouth just trended in D.C at number 3!!! GUYS I CANT BELIEVE IT! So incredibly thankful and inspired! pic.twitter.com/HW09UwTpz1
— X claire X (@ladybaguettee) June 25, 2015
Commenting on the tweetfest, founder Clare Lejeune said Our hope is that through this social media medium we will be able to show that, contrary to popular belief, the youth are in fact pro-life and actively standing up for life.”
https://twitter.com/TheFrenchChicka/status/614163864763154432
The supporters aired a range of reasons for opposing abortion, from respect for all life, to religion.
https://twitter.com/VitamSave/status/614173283404132352
https://twitter.com/Sunflower__Art/status/614213180185690113
https://twitter.com/ABlessedTexan/status/614209402967470081
Religion plays a large part in shaping attitudes to abortion amongst young people (as well as old). According to a 2015 report, overall, 55 percent of people born between 1980 and 2000 believe abortion should be legal in most or all cases, while 42 percent believe it should be illegal in most or all cases—roughly the same proportion as the rest of the country.
But that shifts dramatically amongst religious adherents – 80 percent of young, white evangelicals believe abortion should be banned, whilst 80 percent of young people with no religious affiliation do not.
Others using the hashtag appealed to libertarian and social justice ideals:
https://twitter.com/LifeMattersJrnl/status/614173104349188096
https://twitter.com/PrevailChris/status/614173448290471936
https://twitter.com/blessedcowgirlr/status/614267664685400064
They also used the hashtag to air facts that contradict the media narrative on abortion.
https://twitter.com/PrevailChris/status/614173624191193092
A Press Association survey found that abortions decreased in every state by an average 12 percent between 2010 and 2015. There has been some effort in the media to suggest that the drop in abortions is due to more restrictive legislation being passed – for example the Washington Post published a graph last year showing a massive spike in state legislation on abortion, but there is some evidence to suggest that the legislation is following, not setting the trend for fewer abortions.
Although some of those laws have made it harder to access abortion, and although access to contraception is becoming easier, it does appear that a third factor – young people are not jumping upon the abortion bandwagon in the way that their parents generation did – is at play. In which case we may see more pro-life tweetfests popping up.
https://twitter.com/CultureShifting/status/614322569454452736
Follow Donna Rachel Edmunds on Twitter: Follow @Donna_R_E or e-mail to: dedmunds@breitbart.com
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