The pro-life generation?
By Kathryn Jean Lopez
Friday, September 1, 2006

One day last January, Jonathan Tonkowich was sitting in math class at Thomas Aquinas College in southern California, daydreaming about how to do something constructive for the pro-life cause. What he came up with was Wash for Life (www.washforlife.org), which will make its debut on Sept. 16.

His idea: Local pro-life youth groups in all 50 states will help raise money for the local crisis-pregnancy centers. The Wash for Lifers already have over 137 groups in 35 states set to wash cars that Saturday morning. "Car washes are the classic way that youth groups raise money for anything," Jon tells me. "It made sense to make it a national day with thousands of youth participating so that youth would get excited, and we could make it into a story that tells that this generation is pro-life."

Is he right? Is his generation pro-life? It could be trending in that direction. In 2004, UCLA's annual poll of U.S. college freshmen found student support for legal abortion at its lowest level (54 percent) since the poll began in 1977. "Glamour" magazine last year noted the "mysterious disappearance of young pro-choice women," pointing to a 2003 CBS/New York Times poll that found only 35 percent of women 18-29 responded that "abortion should be available to anyone who wants it"; in 1993, it had been 50 percent. the rest


Choosing Life
How pro-lifers become pro-lifers.
by Fred Barnes
09/01/2006

HOW DO PEOPLE BECOME PRO-LIFERS? What turns people into passionate foes of abortion and related issues like euthanasia and embryonic stem cell research? I'm not referring to those who supported the pro-life position because of their family upbringing or religious faith or because of a political requirement as, say, a Republican candidate in a red state. I'm talking about people who, as adults or mature teenagers, were either pro-abortion or basically indifferent to the issue. Then something changed their mind, prompting them to take up the anti-abortion cause. Perhaps they began defending the pro-life position without realizing they'd flipped. In any case, what caused the change? What happened?
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