With the 30th anniversary of Roe v. Wade this week, pro-abortion activists are throwing the predictable confetti, blowing out candles and rolling out their celebrity spokeswomen to cheer for “choice” and “freedom.”

Above all, though, foremost, they’re promising to mobilize a “citizen army” to defend Roe. An army that will include both seasoned activists and “the new generation of women who have never known a world without the right to choose,” proclaims Kate Michelman, president of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL).

But it’s that “new generation of women” who are causing NARAL and the rest of the abortion community some major problems. College women, along with college men, simply aren’t cooperating.

According to two recent polls, collegians have turned into the most conservative generation in a long time — at least on the abortion issue.

A Zogby International poll reports that young adults are more likely than their parents or grandparents to support a total ban — that’s right, a total ban — on abortion. One-third of people ages 18 to 29 said that abortion should never be legal, compared to 23 percent for those ages 30 to 64 and about 20 percent for those over 65.

A University of California, Berkeley poll found a similar trend. In that one, young people (ages 15 to 26) were about 10 percentage points more likely to support abortion restrictions than their elders, by a margin of 44 percent to 34 percent. That’s a mere 7 percentage points away from a majority.

These numbers definitely have pro-abortion heads spinning. After all, the thought was that as conservative, religious fanatics grew old and died off, the enlightened, liberal youth would take their place and secure abortion as an inalienable right.

What happened?

According to many abortion supporters, it’s simply that college students are uneducated.

“We face the challenge of educating the young people around us about life before Roe, so they can appreciate fully the freedom that earlier generations suffered without,” writes Susan Motamed for Planned Parenthood.

If we just explain the issue, the pro-abortion crowd feels, then college students will get it.

But according to many young pro-lifers, college students already get it. And they’re getting vocal about it.

“The people who made abortion legal know it’s wrong. And young people, who have grown up with it, know it’s wrong,” says Jamie Polychronis, a filmmaking and photography major at SUNY Buffalo. “People have just been afraid to speak out. But my generation has been trained to speak out — with MTV and everything. So we’re using that training with our own beliefs and becoming more bold.”

Jamie, who interned last summer with Rock for Life, has learned firsthand that college students are seeing the pro-life light. “Before I got involved with Rock for Life, the only pro-lifers I knew were my parents’ generation. And then, as I traveled to music festivals and marches, I realized, ‘Wow! There’s a lot of people out there my age that feel strongly about being pro-life like I do.’ ”

But why? Why would this generation, portrayed by the media as liberal and lazy, be getting conservative and even active on this issue?

According to Michael Sheehan, a senior at Williams College and president of American Collegians for Life, there are several reasons.

First, college students have a unique view of abortion — as survivors. Whereas the Gloria Steinems and Ted Turners of the world had their existence practically guaranteed, college students today are here because, frankly, their mothers did not head to a local clinic. The thought that “it could’ve been me, or my brother, or my friend” rings true.

“There’s a sense that we have survived,” Michael says. “And also remembering the people that aren’t here. We’re missing them, without knowing who they are and who they would have become if given the chance to have life.”

Second, many college students have experienced the pain of abortion — either themselves or through close friends.

“People say, ‘I love my friend, I want what’s best for them,’” Michael says. “But we’ve learned that abortion is not the best for them. It has negative effects on their body and their psyche.”

The idea that abortion is just a “procedure” falls flat for collegians who have comforted crying roommates and seen the scars firsthand.

“It affects us, and it affects our friends,” agrees Jamie. “Most people probably know someone who’s been through an abortion and there’s nothing good about it.”

But above all, young pro-lifers hear one thing over and over from their peers: Abortion just hasn’t worked.

“A lot of college students are dissatisfied with what happened in their parents generation,” says Christin McLewin, a junior Spanish major at Lee University. “They said abortion would solve all the problems — that we wouldn’t have unwanted children. But we have so much more child abuse today. It hasn’t solved anything.”

College students have lived through America’s societal breakdown — more substance abuse, more broken homes, more unplanned pregnancies, more depression.

They’re tired of a throwaway culture, Christin says, abortion included.

And that leaves young adults open to exploring a pro-life view, though they may not hold traditional views across the board.

“I go to a fairly large university — about 40,000 students — and, especially being in the arts, it’s very liberal,” says Jamie. “For my first documentary, I did it on the pro-life movement in Buffalo and that opened up a whole debate in class. We talked about my film for about two days and everyone else’s for about 15 minutes. It was a real opportunity.”

“We want to be different from the last generation,” Christin states. “In order to change the world, we have to come up with better solutions.”

All these students agree that it’s heartening to see their generation head pro-life, but they also know that there’s work to be done.

“We’re the ones who have the most powerful voice,” says Christin, “because we’re supposedly the generation who was to receive the “benefits” of abortion. So if we say ‘We’re not satisfied,’ that has a lot more weight than whatever the previous generation has to say.”

With one in five abortions performed on college women, campuses continue to be a place where life decisions are made every day.

“We have to realize that what students learn and decide in college will influence them the rest of their lives,” says Michael Sheehan. “If you think you’re the only one who’s pro-life, you’re not alone. Not only are there people our age that will fight beside you to defend life, but truth is on your side as well.”

For alternatives to abortion or dealing with its aftermath, you can find a nearby pregnancy care center here. For aid in thinking through the abortion issue or making a case for a pro-life position, click here.