Some groups expressed displeasure with Debbie Wasserman Schultz's choice of words in regard to abortion rights. | AP Photo Wasserman Schultz gets heat for calling young women 'complacent' on abortion rights

Abortion rights groups are calling out Debbie Wasserman Schultz for a recent interview in which she called young women complacent about their reproductive choices.

“Here’s what I see: a complacency among the generation of young women whose entire lives have been lived after Roe v. Wade was decided,” the Florida representative and Democratic National Committee chair said in a Q&A with The New York Times Magazine published Wednesday.


While groups were careful to still express their support for Wasserman Schultz, they expressed displeasure with her choice of words. “I love Debbie Wasserman Schultz, but I do disagree with her on this,” said Eleanor Smeal, founder of the Feminist Majority Foundation, an advocacy group that describes itself as “dedicated to women’s equality, reproductive health and nonviolence.” The organization also has a pro-abortion rights student network on college campuses.

“The young people not only turn out, they turn out bigger, and they vote consistently overwhelmingly for reproductive choice,” Smeal said.

“Not only are young people engaged in pro-choice activism, but they’re embracing abortion as something positive. They are more unapologetic about it and are really frustrated with many politicians including pro-choice ones who let abortion be used as a bargaining chip in legislative negotiations,” said Kierra Johnson, executive director of URGE, a group that focuses on encouraging young people to advocate “reproductive and gender equity.”

Johnson added that she thinks Wasserman Schultz was relaying an “urban legend.”

“I don’t think the intention is to blame young people, but I do think … the rhetoric, unfortunately, feeds this issue that young people don’t care,” she said.

Wasserman Schultz later on Wednesday sought to clarify her comment. “We need women of every generation — mine included — to stand up and speak out, and that is the main message I sought to convey in that interview,” she said in a statement. “For many in my generation who lived the majority of our lives with the right to make our own health care choices, there wasn’t a sense of urgency after Roe v. Wade settled our right to a safe and legal abortion. Since then, opponents worked aggressively to chip away at women’s reproductive freedom and they have awakened a sleeping giant in the millennials leading the fight in defense of the progress we’ve made.”

But Wasserman Schultz’s original comment touched on a theory commonly discussed in abortion rights circles — that women born after the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, which legalized abortion, do not know what it’s like to live in a world where abortions are less accessible, and therefore take that access for granted.

It was echoed when the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, an abortion rights group, stepped down in 2012 to make room for a younger leader who could rally the next generation over what she saw as an “intensity gap” with millennials.

“There’s an opportunity for a new and younger leader,” 60-year-old Nancy Keenan told The Washington Post in May 2012. “Roe v. Wade is 40 in January. It’s time for a new leader to come in and, basically, be the person for the next 40 years of protecting reproductive choice.”

While it isn’t clear whether young people feel differently than they would without Roe v. Wade, a Gallup poll from June 2015 shows that the percentage of 18- to 34-year-olds who identified as “pro-choice” has remained fairly consistent in recent years — 55 percent in 2001, to 53 percent in 2015.

Sandra Fluke, the prominent women’s health activist, told POLITICO that she often hears the sentiment expressed by Wassserman Schultz.

“I’ve heard this concern about the millennial generation from many women and men of many generations,” Fluke said. “We can’t expect different generations to have the same type of reaction and experience on this issue.”

“We have to show up and earlier generations need to make room for us as well,” Fluke said.

But other organizations were adamant about the big role young people are playing in fighting for reproductive rights.

"There are millions of young women and men across the country who would disagree at the idea that they're apathetic,” Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund told POLITICO. “Whether it's organizing a ‘shout your abortion’ movement, or the millions who took action across the country this past September in Pink Out Day, one thing is clear: Young people care deeply about their reproductive health and rights, and are hellbent on making sure they're protected."

And the communications director for EMILY’s List, an organization that supports political candidates who are pro-choice, said all kinds of women are stepping up.

“Women understand that we are one election loss away from Republicans getting the power to fast track their vicious anti-woman agenda,” Marcy Stech said. “And with a GOP field riddled with the most extreme and offensive candidates we’ve ever seen, women across the country are stepping up and showing they’ll do whatever it takes to stop them.”