Guest Columnist Meet Lila Rose - Pro-Life in the Age of Obama

Apr 3, 2009

If after the election of the most pro-abortion president in American history you think pro-life supporters are limping along, helplessly awaiting the next, potentially mortal blow in the form of the soon-to-be enacted Freedom of Choice Act – well, think again!

Meet Lila Rose, the new face of the modern pro-life movement.  In the beautiful and beyond-her-years articulate Lila Rose, the weary, but still standing, pro-life leadership has - just in time - found fresh, intelligent, and (finally!) truly media-savvy reinforcement.

As the president of Live Action, the organization she founded at the age of fifteen, this UCLA junior is responsible for the provocative and eye-opening “Operation Mona Lisa”, an undercover expose of abortion clinic employees who knowingly violate mandatory reporting laws for statutory rape when confronted with underage girls who admit to having adult boyfriends and are seeking an abortion.  Live Action is also responsible for the Racism Project, which taped the controversial and much publicized conversation of a Planned Parenthood grant director who was willing to accept money from a racist would-be donor requesting that his money go specifically for the abortions of African-American babies in order to "lower the number of blacks in America."  Despite legal threats from Planned Parenthood, Lila Rose and Live Action fearlessly post their videos on the web for the world to see. 

By taking viewers behind the curtain, Lila is changing young minds and dispelling the most powerful myths of the pro-abortion lobby – that it seeks to help women (and girls) and that it is not a for-profit industry.   The ugly fact is that the abortion industry is a gruesome, for-profit business and Lila contends that, “when given the facts, young people are decidedly pro-life”.

For the intellectual wing of the pro-life movement, the fight to end abortion has always been a civil rights issue and Lila is steeped in the civil rights philosophy and language articulated by one of prolife’s father figures, the late Fr. Richard Neuhaus, a man who marched with the Martin Luther King himself.

Lila, however, is a hero to all wings of the very diverse and passionate pro-life movement.  When I called respected pro-life leaders there was near universal praise and hope for what she means to the cause.  And when I interviewed her for this column, I could see why.

If you haven’t heard of Lila Rose, it is probably because the media, when covering abortion, always prefers to put the slightly kooky guy in the grim-reaper costume on T.V., or interview the old lady with the bouffant hair and dated outfit.  They’re simply not interested in showing the fresh-faced, gracious Lila or the thousands of young women like her who are pro-life.

If they were, they would show a younger generation of pro-life activists who are not only less jaded and defensive – they are downright optimistic!  Yes, even in the age of Obama, they will tell you that their goal is nothing short of, “ending abortion in their lifetime. “

And, they’re not waiting around hoping that judicial and political stars align to hand them incremental legislative victories that can be rolled back with the presidential pen.  Nor are they counting on the traditional media to tell their story.  They are taking their cause directly to the street and the web.  In the age of 4-D ultra-sound, in-utero spin bifida operations, preemie survival rates now at an incredible 22 weeks, and the power of Youtube, they know that technology is on their side.  They firmly believe that by exposing the truth about abortion, either through the video and photo imaging done by the Center for Bioethical Reform, or the sad and tragic stories of women who have had abortions documented on sites like “Silent No More” (whose spokeswoman is the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King), or by bringing attention to incidents such as the botched Miami abortion that recently made headlines, they will prick at the conscience of America.  Like slavery and segregation before it, abortion is a stain on America’s claim to defend the rights of the most vulnerable among us and, with the help of technology, we are inching closer to the day that we can no longer blame or hate the messengers, just the injustice.