Over the last 30 years people who support abortion rights tend to have less children and more abortions. Those who are pro-life tend to have more children and less abortions. The result: A greater number of young adults are pro-life in spite of liberalizing trends on other social issues (e.g., gay marriage). The bottom line: An entire pro-abortion generation has been wiped out by abortion.

This morning on his daily podcast, Albert Mohler discusses a new study confirming what James Taranto called in 2005 “The Roe Effect.” The “Roe Effect” is the theory that Roe vs. Wade has resulted in fewer Democratic voters over the decades. Over 50 million unborn babies have been killed since 1973, and those 50 million have occurred disproportionately among traditionally Democratic constituencies. If the theory were true, it would mean that Roe has eliminated a large portion of the voters who most likely would have adopted their parents’s pro-choice views.

This latest study, authored by two researchers from Northwestern University, has essentially confirmed that the “Roe Effect” is real. Here is a summary of their findings in their own words:

We examine the effect of fertility on abortion attitudes, a useful case study due to their strong correlation with family size and high parent-child correlation. We test the hypothesis that the comparatively high fertility of pro-life individuals has led to a more pro-life population using 34 years of GSS data (1977-2010). We find evidence that the abortion attitudes have lagged behind a liberalizing trend of other correlated attitudes, and consistent evidence that differential fertility between pro-life and pro-choice individuals has had a significant effect on this pattern. Future studies should account for differential fertility as a meaningful force of cohort replacement in studies of public opinion where parents and children are likely to share the same attitude.

What does this mean? It means that over the last 30 years people who support abortion rights tend to have less children and more abortions. Those who are pro-life tend to have more children and less abortions. The result: A greater number of young adults are pro-life in spite of liberalizing trends on other social issues (e.g., gay marriage).

The bottom line: An entire pro-abortion generation has been wiped out by abortion.

Denny Burk is Associate Professor of New Testament and Dean of Boyce College, the undergraduate arm of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminar. He blogs on matters concerning politics, theology and culture. This article  is used with his permission.

Read the study paper “Differential Fertility as a Determinant of Trends in Public Opinion about Abortion in the United States”