pro-choice

• Rock the Vote has a young voter score card for states
• Iowa is one of the top states in the country for access to voting and ease of voting for youth. Other states include North Carolina and Montana
• Why millennials can’t start their careers and baby boomers can’t end theirs.
  

  "It’s hard to say this spring whether it’s more difficult for the class of 2011 to enter the labor force or for the class of 1967 to leave it.

  Students now finishing their schooling—the class of 2011—are confronting a youth unemployment rate above 17 percent. The problem is compounding itself as those collecting high school or college degrees jostle for jobs with recent graduates still lacking steady work. “The biggest problem they face is, they are still competing with the class of 2010, 2009, and 2008,” says Matthew Segal, cofounder of Our Time, an advocacy group for young people.

  At the other end, millions of graying baby boomers—the class of 1967—are working longer than they intended because the financial meltdown vaporized the value of their homes and 401(k) plans. For every member of the millennial generation frustrated that she can’t start a career, there may be a baby boomer frustrated that he can’t end one."

• Care2 picks up our debunking of the "empowerment" of debt among youth with their story: Debt may not be so empowering after all
• After yesterday's story about the Iowa State Senator who told students lobbying for fair tuition to "go home" Campus Progress has launched a petition asking people to demand Republican Iowa State Sen. Shawn Hamerlinck apologize to Iowa's youth.
• WH reaches out to young voter roundtables

  

• This is so depressing - Are anti-depresents over prescribed to youth?
• Youth who watch MTV's Pregnancy Programs are more likely to support abortion according to a new survey (PDF) of viewers. Full disclosure ... after watching this show I believed very strongly in sterilization...
  

  "71 percent of "millennials" (ages 18 to 29) have seen a show about pregnancy.

  And 29 percent of millennials had seen, specifically, either "Teen Mom" or "16 and Pregnant." Among Americans overall, that number drops to 17 percent.

  But regardless of age, the study found that 65 percent of those shows' viewers support abortion -- among the general public, 56 percent support it."

• By that same token here is One Millennial's take on New Research around LGBT Rights and Abortion - The story on the research itself shows that youth tend to support choice and believe in its legality but believe its morally wrong. This will surly be critical messaging for choice groups in upcoming elections as they make their case to young voters.
  

  "Just under half of 18- to 29-year-olds say that abortion is morally acceptable, but six out of 10 say it should be legal in most or all cases, and nearly seven out of 10 say it should be available locally."

• NC House OKs blocking low-interest college loans
  

  "North Carolina's House of Representatives is sidestepping Gov. Beverly Perdue's veto by trying to allow more than two dozen community colleges to refuse to offer low-interest student loans. . . .

  College presidents say they worry they'll be cut off from federal financial aid programs if student loan defaults go too high. Community Colleges vice president Linda Weiner said each campus is responsible for student financial aid issues and presidents have the leeway to act on their concerns."

• By that same token - Wells Fargo has launched a fixed interest rate student loan program - I assume to compete with federal student loans? If you consolidate your federal student loan and lock in a rate that rate never changes. In 2007 Congress passed a bill that helped bring more sunshine to student loan companies. That Congress continued with a huge student loan overhaul and the fight continues today....
• More on the Student Loan bubble
• Personal story of a Tennessee youth who is young, gay and homeless
• The AFL-CIO hosts its second annual Young Workers Summit in Minneapolis
• Commentary: Is college worth it?
• The Roosevelt Institute is having a reception in DC this evening if you want to go here are the details
• The Senate HELP Committee released a staff discussion draft of Title I of the proposed Workforce Investment Act (WIA) reauthorization bill. SparkAction.org will feature Millennial stories on it as this moves forward.
• From the League of Young Voters 99Problems.org blog they pose the question - is our generation post racial? Given that we're the most diverse generation in American history this is a great question to ask.

The Knights of Columbus have a poll out (I know I know but go with me on this) that says that nearly 6 in 10 Millennials is anti-choice.

When I saw it I rolled my eyes a little because... how credible is a poll from the Knights of Columbus, right? I mean, we're not talking Newsweek Magazine or the CNN poll here. But a few different people have picked it up believing it is a credible scientific poll.

According to the details

"Data were collected from December 23, 2009 through January 4, 2010 using an online, probability-based panel..."

Imagine if we put up a poll on our website and asked you all to take it. That's about as scientific as this poll is.

Here is some real scientific data. From the Guttmacher Institute nearly a third of all unwanted pregnancies end in abortion.

• However, for the first time since the early 1990s, overall teen pregnancy rates increased in 2006, rising 3%. It is too soon to tell whether this reversal is simply a short-term fluctuation or the beginning of a long-term increase.
• Black and Hispanic women have the highest teen pregnancy rates (126 and 127 per 1,000 women aged 15–19, respectively); non-Hispanic whites have the lowest rate (44 per 1,000).
• The pregnancy rate among black teens decreased 45% between 1990 and 2005, more than the overall U.S. teen pregnancy rate declined during the same period (41%).
• Eighty-two percent of teen pregnancies are unplanned; they account for about one-fifth of all unintended pregnancies annually.
• Two-thirds of all teen pregnancies occur among 18–19-year-olds.
• The reasons teens give most frequently for having an abortion are concern about how having a baby would change their lives, inability to afford a baby now and feeling insufficiently mature to raise a child.
• Six in 10 minors who have abortions do so with at least one parent's knowledge. The great majority of parents support their daughter's decision to have an abortion.

Just some quick facts that are a little more realistic about where young people stand on abortion. While this poll wants people to believe that young people are against it, what it doesn't clarify is if young people are pro-choice. You can be against abortion AND pro-choice in fact... everyone I know who is pro-choice is against abortion. Secondly, the poll doesn't clarify if these same young people believe that abortion should be illegal or not. Many people are against abortion but recognize the right of other people to make their own choices about their health, but again the poll doesn't address that either.

Perhaps next time they could be a little more scientific, rather than attempting to manifest data to support their own political ideology.

At a time when Congress was battling out the right to bring health care to all poor children, middle schools in Portland, Maine passed in a 7-2 vote to begin offering birth control to middle school students who request it.

As part of the anti-choice anti-sex right wing agenda many are spinning this as handing out the pill to 11 year olds, casually forgetting that 13 year olds and sometimes even 14 year olds are also in middle school. While that might not make it any better for parents who want to believe that their perfect little daughters would never even so much as look at a member of the opposite sex we all know the reality is parents need to wake the hell up and we have a responsibility to help our fellow youngsters protect themselves.

"It's scary to think your children are doing things that you don't know about, but they are doing things that you don't know about," said Brenda Rhodes Miller, executive director of the D.C. Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy." says the Washington Times

This only a few months after MTV launched their new Choose or Lose PSA I've seen a number of good - REALLY good safe sex PSA's as well: