Generation Next

The New York Times Magazine reports on Generation Next's defiance of conventional wisdom on the two leading "culture war" issues:

Young Americans, it turns out, are unexpectedly conservative on abortion but notably liberal on gay marriage. Given that 18- to 25-year-olds are the least Republican generation (35 percent) and less religious than their elders (with 20 percent of them professing no religion or atheism or agnosticism), it is curious that on abortion they are slightly to the right of the general public. Roughly a third of Gen Nexters endorse making abortion generally available, half support limits and 15 percent favor an outright ban. By contrast, 35 percent of 50- to 64-year-olds support readily available abortions. On gay marriage, there was not much of a generation gap in the 1980s, but now Gen Nexters stand out as more favorably disposed than the rest of the country. Almost half of them approve, compared with under a third of those over 25.

What it means is far from clear:

Liberals could take heart that perhaps homosexual marriage has replaced abortion as the new “equality issue” for Gen Nexters, suggested John Russonello, a Washington pollster whose firm is especially interested in social values; Gen Nexters may have grown up after the back-alley abortion era, but they haven’t become complacent about sexual rights. Conservatives might take comfort from a different hypothesis that [Pew Forum religion expert John] Green tried out: maybe Gen Nexters have been listening to their parents’ lectures about responsibility. Don’t do things that make you have an abortion, young people may have concluded, and do welcome everyone into the social bulwark of family responsibility.

For what it's worth, these statistics comport with my [woefully unscientific] experience with law students.  Abortion is still very much a live issue; same-sex marriage, much less lively.