Amna Nawaz:

A majority of Americans think abortion should be legal in all or most cases, but there's a growing gap between men and women on the issue. And that divide is perhaps clearest among Generation Z, those born between 1997 and 2012.

But, as special correspondent Sarah Varney reports, this split is part of a bigger picture about how Gen Z thinks and what they want for their lives.

Sarah Varney:

It's a sunny fall day at Auburn University, and that means students from lots of campus organizations are outside trying to get fellow Gen Z'ers to stop by their tables.

Elizabeth, Auburn University Student:

You pick one, you put it into the baggie.

Sarah Varney:

Among them is Elizabeth, a 21-year-old from LaGrange, Georgia. Like many of her peers at this largely conservative Alabama school, Elizabeth considers herself mostly against abortion.

Elizabeth:

I don't necessarily think abortion is the answer.

Sarah Varney:

But after Roe v. Wade was overturned and Alabama's near-total abortion ban went into effect, she was unsure of what would happen next.

Elizabeth:

You shouldn't feel like you don't have access if it's your life or a child's life. And my biggest thing was, OK, what does that mean for contraception? And what does that mean for birth control and all of these other things?

It was kind of one of those things, I was like, where does that leave us?

Leah, Auburn University Student:

With that one door closed, it made me realize the severity of like, oh, like, this kind of clicked for me how important this issue is.

Sarah Varney:

Twenty-one-year-old Leah is a junior from Huntsville. She believes women should make their own decisions about pregnancy and was stunned by the Supreme Court's ruling.

Leah:

I was like, oh, wow. Like, I do have peers where access to abortion would make a world's difference in the trajectory of their life outcome or the child's outcome.

Sarah Varney:

Both women grew up in Christian churches and say their perspectives are not always shared by men in their generation.

Anakin, Auburn University Student:

It is unique DNA, it is a life, and to kill it would be murder.

Sarah Varney:

Anakin is a senior from rural Alabama. I sat down with him and three other Gen Z men who attend Auburn. The Bible, they told me, informs their views on abortion.

Parker, Auburn University Student:

I wish I knew the verse, but I know that the lord tells this. The lord tells us that life begins at conception.

Sarah Varney:

Montgomery native Parker is a junior.

Parker:

It doesn't say those specific words, but when you analyze it, you know what the truth is.

Sarah Varney:

An overwhelming number of Gen Z women, 76 percent of them, believe abortion should be legal. For young men, that number is 59 percent.

2022, when Roe v. Wade was overturned, obviously, it's a seismic event. Was that something that registered for you?

Ben, Auburn University Student:

I did not pay any attention to that.

Sarah Varney:

Was it something that your friends talked about or did you talk about it all in your family, or no?

Ben:

No, I didn't think about it at all.

Sarah Varney:

Ben is a senior at Auburn and grew up in Huntsville. We met him at a Turning Point USA event on campus.

What are your views, though, on the fact that abortion is now illegal in Alabama in particular, I guess?

Ben:

I like babies. I want to have a lot of babies. I think if you get someone pregnant, then you got to have the kid. I don't see a need for killing babies. But I'm not -- like, I don't really look into abortion stuff. I don't really care, to be honest.

Tricia Bruce, Sociologist:

Everyday Americans have not sat down for even an hour, let alone days or years, thinking about all the intricacies of this issue of abortion.

Sarah Varney:

Tricia Bruce is a sociologist and author. She conducted two nationwide studies, interviewing hundreds of Americans on their attitudes about abortion. She shared some of the responses from Gen Z men.

Tricia Bruce:

He says; "Well, I can't really speak on abortion because, like, I'm not super Christian, but I'm also -- like, I'm not, like, a woman. So, like, that's really none of my business."

Sarah Varney:

Bruce says religion, age and politics are the biggest influences. But gender also matters.

Tricia Bruce:

Women are more likely to talk about how this issue is more important to them. And they're also more likely to hear those stories. So, three-quarters of our interviewees overall have heard a personal story, know someone personally who has had an abortion. That's especially true of women.

Ryan Burge:

I think Dobbs was such a psychic shock for a lot of women because it took a right away that they'd had for a long time. And that's not something we have hardly ever seen in the history of America. And I think, for a lot of women, that changed them.

Sarah Varney:

That gendered gap on abortion rights is indicative of a bigger split today, says Ryan Burge. He teaches religion and politics at Washington University in St. Louis.

Ryan Burge:

I think, for a lot of men, they didn't feel that. They didn't intuit that like women did. And I think that might be one of the reasons we're seeing this divide happen, is because women keep yelling like, no, they took our rights away. And men go, I don't care, or I don't think of it that way.

Sarah Varney:

Burge is a demographer who analyzes religious trends in the U.S. He says Gen Z women are more socially progressive than any prior generation of American women.

Ryan Burge:

And, meanwhile, Gen Z men, I wouldn't call them conservative, but definitely more toward the middle of the spectrum.

Sarah Varney:

We showed Burge our interviews from Alabama and asked if they tracked with what he sees in the data nationwide.

Ryan Burge:

I think men want to keep it the way it was because that benefited men. And women obviously want things to change and they are changing in ways that are benefiting women more and more.

And I think that's what's happening a lot right now with young men is, they feel like they're the last generation of men who sort of to run the show, and they're sort of digging their heels in and trying to get as much as they can.

Sarah Varney:

Burge says a part of what's happening is that young women are leaving churches at a faster rate than Gen Z men.

Ryan Burge:

So, I think a lot of women, a lot of young women, they think about religion, they go, why would I want to go to an institution on a regular basis that tells me I don't have the same rights, that my vote is wrong, that my views on these social issues are incorrect?

And I'm also surrounded by guys who I really don't want to marry because they agree with the teachings of the church, which I don't agree with.

Nick Fuentes, Influencer:

In terms of where the pendulum is at, I feel like the women are very unloving to the men. That's why they don't cook.

Sarah Varney:

Today, young men are also flooded with messages on social media, far right influencers that peddle male supremacy and push back on evolving gender roles.

Andrew Tate, Influencer:

If I have responsibility over her, then I must have a degree of authority. You can't be responsible for a dog if it doesn't obey you.

Ryan Burge:

I think it's very interesting that Joe Rogan's podcast is three hours' long. Theo Von a two-hour podcast. These guys are filling their heads with content in a way that was not possible -- think about even 20 or 30 years ago. How would you be able to pump 15 hours of content into one person's brain per week, every week for years, was impossible.

Sarah Varney:

One survey found that 60 percent of young men in the U.S. regularly engage with content from online masculinity influencers. Burge says their messages are helping to shape what Gen Z men want for their future.

Ben:

Ideally, I will make enough money to have a lot of kids. My wife will -- this is ideally -- stay at home, because, if I have a lot of kids, someone has to take care of them.

Sarah Varney:

And what kind of relationship do you want to have with your partner?

Ben:

Probably the traditional route. I will probably get to make the final decision.

(Laughter)

Ben:

Obviously, we will talk, come up with decisions, the big decisions, but I think I'd like to have the final say.

Truth, Atlanta Resident:

A lot of women saw the marriages that our mothers had with our fathers, and we're saying no.

Sarah Varney:

Truth was born and raised in Atlanta. At 21 years old, she understands why some Gen Z men are being influenced by sexist voices.

Truth:

I think a lot of boys my age are really -- it's easy for them to slip into that pipeline, when you're able to feel like, well, I'm a man and I'm better and women should just do this and women should be in the kitchen and just having babies. I think that helps with their feeling of loneliness and they're able to bond on that.

Sarah Varney:

But she doesn't want to be in a relationship with men who hold those views.

What's your experience like been trying to date over the years?

Truth:

I think it's just a lot of misogyny and a lot of controlling that not just I see, but also my friends see. And it makes me not want to date. I will have to be -- like, I will go on a few dates, but to take it to a serious level.

Sarah Varney:

Ten years from now, what do you hope your life will look like?

Russell, Auburn University Student:

I would say a successful job and hopefully married and, 10 years down the road, kids on the way, and starting a successful family.

Elizabeth:

I mean, I do want a large family. And that is because I have wanted to be a mother for so long. I don't think it's something that you have to do, though.

Sarah Varney:

Ryan Burge worries these divisions within Generation Z may be intractable.

Ryan Burge:

What women want and what men want are in two completely different directions. And I don't know how you reconcile. These are not issues where you can compromise. Like, are we going to have children is a binary choice. Are we going to get married in our 20s versus our 30s? That's sort of a binary choice.

Sarah Varney:

As young Americans move out of their parents' homes later, get married later, and have fewer children, Gen Z women and men are navigating a new reality.

Tricia Bruce:

In that broader climate, then you have this kind of renegotiation around, what does it mean to be in relationship? What do gender roles look like, if there is such a thing? What are the different responsibilities that people carry?

Sarah Varney:

What does it feel like to be a woman in America?

Leah:

I think it's definitely hard. I think it's really easy to get caught up in seeing all these horrible things, the attack on access to contraceptives, abortion. However, it's important that we stay empowered and we stay loud and we voice these issues, and we fight to get ourselves educated and to put ourselves into roles where we can make change.

Sarah Varney:

For "PBS News Hour," I'm Sarah Varney in Auburn, Alabama.