A group of pro-life college students confronted Rep. Renee Ellmers yesterday at her Congressional office to tell her they were disappointed that she flip-flopped on the bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks.
They were equally upset about news reports indicating Ellmers said pushing the bill through the House of Representatives would be unwise because millennials are supposedly not pro-life, despite polls to the contrary.
Michele Hendrickson, Capital Area Regional Coordinator for Students for Life of America, wrote about the meeting with Ellmers. The North Carolina congresswoman says she is pro-life and said her comment about the pro-life views of young Americans was taken out of context:
After her disappointing withdrawal of support of the Pain Capable bill, which would have banned abortion after 20 weeks, Congresswoman Renee Ellmers (R-NC) has been visited twice now by pro-life students in the last month. Bold high school and college shared their pro-life beliefs and confronted Rep. Ellmers, reminding her that millennials do care about social issues, especially concerning abortion.
Throughout our conversation she acknowledged our concerns with agreeable head nods. She assured the students that she was “pro-life just like us” and that if the Pain Capable bill came up to a vote with language like last year’s bill, she would vote yes. [She actually did vote yes on an identical bill in 2013]
Lori Kostka, a student at George Mason University, questioned Rep. Ellmers on her open letter published last Friday – she called pro-life groups “childish and abhorrent” – asking why she did not mention the overwhelming number of millennials who not only marched for life two weeks ago or the 60+ young people who visited her office the same day (she wasn’t there but the group met with her staff).
Rep. Ellmers seemed troubled by our mention of her previous millennials comment by letting out an audible sigh and claiming that her comments about millennials not caring about social issues in the past had been “taken out of context” and that she does realize that young people care about issues like abortion. She added that she had meant she hadn’t seen millennials be “active” in their views on social issues before and that young people usually do not often share their views with others. We assured her that students are, in fact, active on their campuses regularly and they receive support from their peers on this issue.
I spoke up for the group explaining that we, as millennials, would appreciate her having our back as she votes and speaks up in Congress when it comes to the Pain Capable bill. Lori Kostka also chimed in that she understood how complicated the process must be, but encouraged the Congresswoman to take a stand for life because for every day we don’t pass this bill, viable babies are killed feeling every ounce of pain an abortion procedure inflicts.
