Recent gallup polls conducted on youth aged 13-17 showed that on average, teenagers are more likely to be pro-life than their parents or grandparents. Christian conservatives view the results as “encouraging signs” of victory for the pro-life cause.
"We're winning the struggle for hearts and minds," said Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. "... The young people are more conservative than their parents."
The polls, conducted over the summer through the Internet and released Nov. 18, used an online research panel that was "designed to be representative of the entire U.S. population."
Each of the surveys echoed the same results: American teenagers are more pro-life than the general adult population.
32 percent of teens, compared to 17 percent of adults, said abortion should be illegal in all circumstances; 47 percent of teens, compared to 55 percent of adults, said abortion should be legal only under certain circumstances; 19 percent of teens and 26 percent of adults said abortion should be legal in all circumstances; in addition, 72 percent of teens said they believe abortion is morally wrong.
On issues on same sex unions, however, the teens took a more liberal stance than their preceding generations. The polls showed that while 55 percent of adults opposed same-sex “marriage,” 61 percent of young adults aged 18-29 supported it.
According to Land, the result shows the need for more education on the issue of marriage.
"We have just begun to fight on that issue," he said. "We haven't been engaged as long on that issue. I think that's more a question of the success of mandatory sex-ed programs and MTV and pop culture. We need to address our young people with remedial education on what the Bible says about homosexuality and homosexual 'marriage.'"
