The Pro-Life Movement Gains Momentum – With Audrea Decker: Do you know how many peices of pro-life legislation have been introduced over the last few years? What percentage of the younger generations oppose abortion? What can young people to do make a difference? Tune in to hear Audrea Decker discuss the changing face of the pro-life movement!

Air Date: 02/16/2021

Guest: Audrea Decker

On-air Personalities: David Barton, Rick Green, and Tim Barton

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Transcription note:  As a courtesy for our listeners’ enjoyment, we are providing a transcription of this podcast. Transcription will be released shortly. However, as this is transcribed from a live talk show, words and sentence structure were not altered to fit grammatical, written norms in order to preserve the integrity of the actual dialogue between the speakers. Additionally, names may be misspelled or we might use an asterisk to indicate a missing word because of the difficulty in understanding the speaker at times. We apologize in advance.

Faith and the Culture

Rick:

Welcome to the intersection of faith and the culture. It’s WallBuilders Live, we’re talking about today’s hottest topics on policy and faith and the culture, all of it from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective. How can we equip ourselves to be good biblical citizens in modern America?

That’s what this program does. Every day, we’re here with David Barton, he’s America’s premier historian, and our founder at WallBuilders. Tim Barton is a national speaker and pastor and president of WallBuilders. And my name is Rick Green. I’m a former Texas legislator and America’s Constitution coach.

You can learn more about us at our website, wallbuilderslive.com where you can get archives of the program, also a list of stations around the country where we can be heard. And it’s a great way for you to share the program. So you can go to the website there, grab those links, send them to your friends and family, send them out on social media.

You become a force multiplier when you share those programs, you’re helping to educate, equip, inspire people to make a difference, to be the catalyst for a restoration of biblical values, constitutional principles, all the things we desperately need sewn into our culture, you can be a part of it. So check that out today at wallbuilderslive.com.

And also consider becoming one of our biblical citizenship coaches, start hosting a biblical citizenship class in your living room or at your church. There’s so many different ways to get involved and make a difference.

The Movement is Growing

Alright, David, Tim, later in the program, Audrea Decker will be with us, great article on the prolife movement right now, the many faces of the prolife movement as she puts it. And so this is going to be kind of like a Good News Friday.

Because we’re going to be looking at this entire movement, and how much it’s growing, and how much the younger generations, Gen Z and the Millennials are more and more prolife for a lot of good reasons. But that’s probably why we’re getting so many pieces of good prolife legislation passed in legislatures across the country.

David:

Yeah, we’re seeing a lot happen on that. And it is mentality, you don’t see legislation passed unless there’s substantial support for something. And I recall that I saw an article last year from Planned Parenthood and they were complaining about the fact that over the past two years, 250 different pieces of prolife legislation have been introduced.

Wow. Well, they can complain about that, and I hope they keep complaining, and I hope their complaints get louder and worse, because more has been introduced.

So the fact that you have 250 different pieces of prolife legislation introduced over a couple of years, that’s great. You know, over the course of this program, we’ve been on for a number of years, we’ve had Good News Fridays for what is it 10, 11, 12 years that this has been a part of the program.

And I recall, back when we were first talking about how that look at this, we have a younger generation that is now more prolife than the older generation. It used to be that if you were over 65, the older you are, the more prolife you were.

Good News!

But I remember when we reported on the fact that now the younger generation is more prolife than the older generation, more prolife than their parents are, in some cases, 20-25% more prolife than their parents that we’ve seen this shift and we’re seeing it continue. Even just a week and a half, two weeks ago, we had Good News Friday, where we talked about that now some 80% of the younger generation opposes abortion on-demand up to nine months.

Oiginally only about 44% wanted to see Roe v Wade overturned. But then when they were told that Roe v Wade allows abortion up through all nine months right up to the point of birth, 80% of young people said that’s wrong, we don’t want that, we don’t agree with that. So we’re seeing numbers that have been changing steadily now for 15-20 years. And it’s really getting to some of the biggest numbers we’ve ever seen in the country right now related to young people. And that’s really good.

Tim:

Yeah. And it’s something that, as you mentioned, dad, for the last 10 or 15 years, we’ve seen the trends going that direction. One of the things that was fascinating to me, looking at some of our WallBuilders collection is we have an old, I think, was a Time Magazine that back in the 70s, it was even, I think was early 70s before even Roe vs. Wade happened, where they were showing technology of one of these very early kind of sonogram images of showing what a baby look like this unborn baby in a mother’s womb.

And for me growing up as a Millennial, that was nothing I was aware of as far as that there was technology back in the 70s that could show this incredible picture of an unborn child in the mother’s womb. Because it seems like most of what we’ve seen in the last couple of decades has been that’s where we’ve seen science change this, I’m saying this more from my generation.

Technology Is Shifting Perspective

That’s where we’ve seen these images and this technology and things that have really helped shift our perspective, and I’m saying our collectively Millennials perspective shift perspective in a much more prolife way realizing no, no, this is not a piece of tissue like the argument was for so long, was just tissue it’s not really a baby. You’re looking, going no, this is absolutely a baby. It’s got a head and a face and eyes and ears and a nose and a mouth. It’s got fingers, obviously, this is a human being.

It’s just interesting that some of that technology was around even decades before, it was not promoted until much more recent generations. But at this point because of the fact that the more recent generations have seen this technology, it certainly is one of the influences that has led so much prolife perspective to come from this younger generation recognizing that this is not just a choice, this is a human being we are talking about, and this human being deserves a right to life.

Rick:

Well, and there’s definitely a generational awakening on that, Audrea Decker talks about it in her new article. We’ve got a link to it on our website today. But she’s going to be sharing it with us when we come back from the break. Stay with us, you’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

Moment from American History

This is Tim Barton from WallBuilders with another moment from American history. America is a special and unique nation. The average length for a Constitution in other countries is only 17 years. But we’ve had ours for over two centuries, and our 4% of the world’s population produces 24% of the world’s gross domestic product. And every year, we produce more inventions and technology than the other 96% of the world combined.

In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville of France came to America, travelled the country, and in his famous book, “Democracy in America” reported, “The position of the Americans is therefore quite exceptional, and it may be believed that no democratic people will ever be placed in a similar one.

This is the origin of the phrase ‘American exceptionalism’ and affirms that America is unique because of the distinctive ideas on which we had been based including inalienable rights, individualism, limited government, and the importance of religion and morality.”

For more information about American exceptionalism, go to wallbuilders.com

Welcome Audrea Decker!

Rick:

Welcome back, thanks for staying with us here on WallBuilders Live. Thrilled to have Audrea Decker with us. She runs ProFamily Legislators Network and our Pro Family Legislators Conference, has a fantastic article out on the Daily Signal right now, “The Pro-Life Generation Does Not Have One Face, but Many”, so much good news in this article. Audrea, thanks for your time. Thanks for coming on today.

Audrea:

Yeah, great to be with you, Rick. Thanks.

Rick:

Well, thanks for all that you do. And you’re always great at just keeping us updated on so many different things happening out there. This article, I think people need to go read because it’s hard to keep up with it, first of all, all the prolife victories, but also just really the changing face of the prolife movement, I think we forget that. You’ve actually got a lot of young people leading the charge on this now, and a lot of great constituencies that the politicians need to know. We’re becoming a prolife nation.

Audrea:

Yeah, that’s right. I think it’s the story that the media often doesn’t tell. Right? It’s not talked about in Hollywood, it’s certainly not celebrated there. It’s not talked about in the mainstream media. But I think as medical technology has advanced, and my generation in particular, Millennials, and then the up and coming Generation Z have the ability now through 3D ultrasounds to actually see babies in the womb, and I think that we are seeing a shift nationally of people really embracing the fact that that it is a baby.

Seventy-Seven Percent

And it’s it shows even just a recent poll Knights of Columbus came out, 77% of Americans oppose or strongly oppose the use of tax dollars for international abortions. I mean, that flies in the face of what we’ve seen the Biden administration do by rescinding the Mexico City policy. And then, as you mentioned, we’re seeing progress in in state legislatures across the country where prolife legislation is being advanced.

Rick:

I got to get you to repeat that part, about 77% because that number is staggering. So 77%, I mean, I didn’t think 77% of America agreed on anything, 77% of Americans oppose or strongly oppose the use of tax dollars for international abortions.

Audrea:

Yes. And it includes Americans who identify even as being pro-choice, which just shows the shift, right, that they recognize that it is not right to force Americans to fund abortions overseas. I mean, Biden’s policies on the issue of abortion are very radical, very extreme, and it’s showing in this recent poll.

Rick:

And that one was an executive order, right? I mean, that was the whole Mexico City policy, day one, we’re going to start paying for abortion around the country again as soon as he was sworn into office?

Mexico City Policy

Audrea:

Yeah, that’s right. I mean, it’s been referred to sort of as a political football back and forth between. It was originally a Reagan/Bush policy where they said we’re not going to fund abortions overseas and, of course, it’s gone back and forth. Democratic approach with presidents have rescinded the policy, Trump put it in place again, to make sure that we weren’t funding abortions overseas. And Biden again, has gone back on it so that we are once again and Americans are largely 77% non-unsupport of that.

Rick:

Man, and on so many levels so wrong. And even just from a financial perspective, why are we sending that kind of money around the world? Talk to me about the Gen Z and Millennial age groups on the life issue, are they more or less prolife than older Americans? What are you seeing with that generational gap?

Audrea:

Yeah, I think we’re seeing that they are becoming more prolife. And I think that’s the spread of information. I mean, we have access now to information to see images of babies in the womb that generations before us didn’t have. So you can’t tell us now that it’s not alive, because we can see it. And I think some of the tremendous work of other prolife activists like Laila Rose have done so much to expose the Planned Parenthood industry and the abortion industry, for what it really is.

And I think that the next generation is seeing that and they’re seeing that information. And largely, we are more prolife, I think more of us are choosing prolife, because we’re equipped with the information to know that is a human being, and it has its fundamental right to life.

A Desire For Justice

Rick:

You know, this has been a crazy year in so many ways over the last 12 months. But one of the things I kind of noticed with the whole BLM movement in the summer, a lot of young people want to be part of a righteous cause. And I think they were lied to obviously on the racism issue and the Marxism that was used there to pit people against each other.

But there were so many, so many young people, I watched him on social media, talk to a lot of them, that jumped on board a lot of that just because they wanted to fight for justice in what they believed was right. Do you see that in the life movement that they’re realizing, wait a minute, this one’s clear cut, I mean, this one isn’t political interpretations of what happened 60 years ago, or 260 years ago, I mean, this is happening right now on my watch? Are they making that connection do you think?

Audrea:

Yeah, I think they absolutely are, especially when you really start looking at the abortion issue more carefully and you see that it discriminates against sex selective abortions. We’re seeing more baby girls are aborted than boys. Even in South Dakota, there was Governor Kristi Noem has introduced a great piece of legislation there that would make it illegal to abort a baby based off of the baby has Down syndrome. Those are kind of the anti-discrimination policies we’re seeing as it relates to life.

But I agree with you the next generation, I mean, this is a cause that it should be nonpartisan. We should be standing for life across the board. And the fact that these policies have been so widely embraced, that take innocent life is really unbelievable. But like I said, we’re seeing really encouraging trends in states like South Carolina, of course, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Florida, Texas, Montana, South Dakota.

Gen Z and Millennials

We’re working in about half a dozen, actually probably about a dozen states right now helping advance prolife policy, working closely with other national prolife organizations, and it is encouraging what I think we’re going to see come out of this legislative session.

Rick:

I love it. That is fantastic news. And that also means it’s not just one state here or there, it really is happening all over the country.

And you also talked about not only your generation seeing the life issue is something that they can make a difference in. And you put it this way, you said we’re the generation that will speak up for the voiceless, and you tied it into the sex trafficking, as well.

There’s just this desire to stop these injustices and to stop the violence against innocent people. And I’m just curious where you think that has come from, like that desire for that sense of justice. I mean, like it’s a great thing. I love seeing it happen.

The churches had less influence on the culture in the last 25 years. So how did that happen? How did we get that sense of justice in your both Gen Z and Millennials?

Audrea:

Yeah, it’s a really good question. I mean, polling has indicated that Millennials, their top priority in life is to make a difference. And so we have seen this massive expansion of community service and wanting to make a difference even in the careers that they choose and with these critical issues.

How Can You Get Involved?

And I think that is due to the massive expansion of even social media and the way that information is dispersed. And I think there’s a lot of course, negatives that we can talk about related to those platforms.

But I think one of the positives is that we have had more access to information than the generation did above us and we’ve grown up with that information just right at our fingertips and Generation Z below Millennials even more so, right, they don’t know life without an iPhone and without social platforms.

But I think it has allowed them to have more information right there, whether it’s human trafficking, sex trafficking and combating that or the issue of life. And when you’re confronted with that, you have to do something with it. I think that you have to do something with it. You know, not to act is to act and we can’t be silent on these issues when lives are at stake.

Rick:

So good. Okay, then let’s close it out with what can they do? So a lot of the young people that are listening today that that are hearing you say this, and as we talk about it, they’re going okay, yeah, I want to do something too. What do you say to them about how to get involved, where to get involved?

Audrea:

Yeah, that’s a great question. There are so many incredible prolife organizations, ways that you can take action and get involved, even online. There’s networks of these. People can go to myfaithvote.org, there’s a take action for life where there are just a ton of resources to all these pro-life organizations that you can get involved in.

Legislation

I also encourage people to be praying, be praying for the legislation that is working its way through the process right now in all of these states and be praying for the legislators that are carrying those bills, that they would have favor, that they would have God’s wisdom on how to defend them and advocate for them.

And then I would say if you have a legislator and know your local legislator, to connect them with WallBuilders ProFamily Legislative Network, we want to get to know them, we’re here to support them. And then we have a great conference November 11th through the 14th in Dallas, Texas, where we invite state legislators to come and we help equip them, not only on the life issue, but on about a dozen policy issues so that they’re prepared to stand for profamily values in their states.

Rick:

I love it. I love it. I love it. Myfaithvotes.org, that’s one of the websites you can go to and get active, get engaged, right there. And then very specific action step, let your state rep or state senator know about the profiling network and ProFamily Legislative Network and the conference coming up in the fall as well.

And it really is, I mean, I’m telling you, those legislators leave so on fire and realizing they’re not alone, realizing there’s other legislators running around the country also fighting for these principles, exchanging ideas. It’s just a great time for them. So both great ways to get involved. And anybody can do that.

So wherever you live, whatever your connections are, you can go to the website profamily.org, you can get the information and you can send it to your state rep or state senator encourage them to be a part of it.  Audrea, you’re doing great work. I’m telling you, it’s making a huge, huge difference. And really appreciate you coming on sharing with us.

Audrea:

Thanks, Rick, appreciate all you’re doing as well. Great to talk with you.

Rick:

Stay with us, folks, we’ll be right back with David and Tim Barton.

Leadership Training Program

Rick:

Hey, friends, we got a great program to share with you today. It’s the WallBuilders Leadership Training program. And it’s an opportunity for 18 to 25 year olds to come spend two weeks diving into the original documents we’re always talking about here on WallBuilders Live. Tim, you’ve already been doing this a couple of summers and seeing the results of young people come into this program. We’re going to see more of them coming this year.

Tim:

Yeah, Rick, something has been cool to see the transformation with young people coming in. You know, the emphasis for us largely is a pursuit of truth. We have a culture that doesn’t know what truth is. We don’t know a biblical truth is or constitutional truth or the American heritage that we have.

And so we really dive into original documents that say, well, what did they actually write, what do they actually do, not just what did somebody say what is actually true? And the truth is, was transformational.

David:

Yeah, guys, this really is a remarkable opportunity. And for those who want to spend time with us and spend time in the original documents, this is a great program. So if you’re from 18 to 25, or you know someone who’s 18 to 25, send them to sign up for one of our three sessions this summer at wallbuilders.com/leadershiptraining.

Victories in Years to Come

Rick:

Welcome back. Thanks for staying with us here on WallBuilders Live, back with David and Tim Barton now. Thanks to Audrea Decker, for joining us today. And as I mentioned earlier, the article is actually linked on our website, so really easy to get to it. Go to wallbuilderslive.com today. I promise you, you’ll enjoy it. It’s good news.

And David, Tim, as we talked about at the top of the hour, you know, this is a generational good news item here because not only has this led to some of those victories we talked about, but we’ll see more of those victories in the coming years because these are also not only prolife young people, they’re active young people. They’re getting really engaged.

Tim:

Yeah. And I thought Audrea made such a good point that younger generations are looking for a cause to get behind and support. They want to do something that’s going to have a lasting impact. They want to make a difference.

And certainly that’s something that we would argue that God put inside of them and it’s very arguably because God has recognized the gross evil of what has happened with the abortion industry in America. And there have been a lot of Christians praying for a long time that God would help and God would do something.

And very, very logically and likely just looking at what we’re seeing, this could be the generation that God sent to help end abortion in America. Certainly, looking at some of the judges that have now been put in place that were, even on the US Supreme Court that were appointed by President Trump that seemed to be prolife, and there’s some possibility in the next couple of years that we’ll see some prolife victories even at the US Supreme Court, it certainly seems like God is doing something.

Hope

And let me also just highlight the fact that Audrea Decker is such an amazing teammate to have, a part of the WallBuilders staff and team on what we do. And as she pointed out, there are so many things that are happening with legislative bodies, with legislators in general. And if people have personal contact with their legislator, have them get in touch with Audrea because she can help line them up with things that are going on. We have a conference we do every year, just incredible stuff, and Audrea is really such a bright person.

She’s really gifted and talented in a lot of these areas. And we’re so happy to have her be part of the team of what God’s called us to do here at WallBuilders. But certainly, she highlights some of these facts and these details of what legislative bodies are doing of the next generation wanting to fight and make a difference in some of these cultural battles. It really does give you hope, and also perspective, that there could be some many more coming victories ahead because of the growing swell of movement of the rising generation.

David:

And I would add too that it’s interesting to see that with this rising movement of the young generation, they’re really more tactically sophisticated. You know, Audrea mentioned Lala Rose, and what Lala Rosa has been able to do with technology and with messaging and reaching the younger generation, even older generations, there’s so much more sophisticated now, and how they can nuance and message things.

And so I thought that that’s a real significant change in the prolife movement. It’s moved from older folks with a really simple message of this is wrong to something that’s much more compelling now, much more apologetic oriented, if you will. And apologetics is simply knowing the why. It’s not just wrong, here’s why it’s wrong. And here’s what you can say, to appeal to people to show why it’s wrong.

Motivation

And I’ve thought it’s really good to see the sophistication of messaging that’s occurring as well as the depth of technology and the ability to interface so many elements together, to where that this really is pretty compelling now for young people. I mean, to see such a high percentage of that generation being prolife, it’s not because they were raised and taught to be prolife, because again, they’re 20 to 30 points more prolife than the generation that raised them.

They’re prolife because they’re seeing compelling messaging, and compelling evidence and compelling proof. And that makes them even better advocates for life, because now they have personally adjusted. It’s not have they been raised, but they have themselves examined and found the truth and found the evidence. And so they’re good advocates for it. And I just see so many good things coming.

And so as we’ve even seen in some recent elections, we talked even election two years ago, how many young people were elected, how many 25 and under folks were elected to state legislators, and they went in because they wanted to see abortion ended. And so the motivation with these young people is not only driving them say this is wrong, it’s driving them to action in some very good ways that I don’t think that I can recall in previous generations having seen that kind of involvement.

So there’s just a lot of good stuff happening with Audrea and her generation, with Tim’s generation, it’s good stuff now. There’s still other areas where that thinking is not yet there where it needs to be in moral issues, we’ve talked about where they are in marriage and how many of these young people come from broken families and haven’t experienced mothers and fathers, etc.

American Journey Experience Summer Institute

But in the life issue, as they’ve been able to see evidence and see what’s there, they are so good on that issue. And that goes back to something, Tim, you were saying a couple days ago how important it is for us to find people and mentor people and connect with them and just be friends with them and help provide that example. And that’s been done in the prolife area, we need to other areas as well.

Rick:

And then also the leadership training program this summer, the opportunity to come in and spend time with you guys to actually be in the library, to be over beck Studios. I mean all the things that they get during that leadership training program, it gives them all kinds of ideas and avenues and contacts for being able to be a person of action and making a difference. So I really want to encourage people to check that out. And LTP this summer is when and how can people get signed up?

Tim:

Yes, on the WallBuilders website, you can look for initiatives and actually it’s going to be rebranded, the American Journey Experience Summer Institute because then it sounds professional and academic. But over at Mercury One, they have the American journey experience which is part of what we’ve been using artifacts and collections to supplement and help tell the story of America better.

So it’s the American Journey Experience, it’s the Summer Institute, which has been traditionally our leadership training program, but the same program just has a new name. And it’s going to be the first two weeks of June, is going to be the two middle weeks of July. But you can find out more about it in the WallBuilders website, wallbuilders.com, look for initiatives, and then that summer training program will be there.

The Pro-Life Movement Gains Momentum – With Audrea Decker

Rick:

It’s a phenomenal experience we’ve had so many young people go through it and just really get inspired about what they want to do with their life and how God can use them to have a positive impact on the culture. So really do encourage people check that out today at wallbuilders.com.

And also go to patriotacademy.com, if you’re in that 16 to 25 range, and you don’t have the capital experience, patriotacademy.com. And then if you’re 18 to 25, then do the new program with WallBuilders, and actually, I encourage you to do both. We have a lot of our Patriot Academy students that actually do both. So check those out, and get ready for a great summer.

By the way, be sure to visit our website today wallbuilderslive.com, I really want to encourage you to come alongside us financially, we are a listener-supported program. So when you support us, it allows us to amplify this voice, to get truth out there even more. And we greatly appreciate those donations.

There’s so many people across the country that do it on a monthly basis, some people do a one-time. Whatever you can do, we really do appreciate it. And it does allow us to engage and equip more people. It allows us to do our leadership training programs for young people but also for legislators and pastors and all the different things that we do. So it’s a great investment in freedom and in a great ministry. We appreciate you doing that. Check it out today at wallbuilderslive.com.