Lila Rose

Lila Rose
Lila Rose, President of Live Action
Born Lila Grace Rose
(1988-07-27) July 27, 1988
San Jose, California, U.S.
Alma mater University of California, Los Angeles
Known for Pro-life activism[1][2]

Lila Grace Rose (born July 27, 1988) is an American pro-life activist and the founder of Live Action.[1][3][4][5][6] She conducts undercover activities in abortion facilities in the United States, including affiliates of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

Early life and education

Rose was raised in San Jose, California, the third of eight children.[7] She was home-schooled through the end of high school and majored in history at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).[7] She was raised as Evangelical Protestant and later converted to Catholicism.[8][9][10]

Activism

At the age of 15, Rose founded Live Action and began giving presentations to schools and youth groups.[7][11] While at UCLA, she partnered with conservative activist James O’Keefe III.[12] According to Religion Dispatches, Rose and O'Keefe were inspired by American pro-life activist Mark Crutcher.[13]

Rose has concentrated her activism on Planned Parenthood and National Abortion Federation affiliates in the United States, focusing on the moral and ethical aspects of abortion and financial issues in the abortion industry. She has also highlighted the high abortion rate in the African-American community.[14]

Planned Parenthood undercover videos

In 2007, Rose visited two Planned Parenthood facilities and recorded undercover videos while purporting to be an 15 year old girl who had been impregnated by a 23 year old male who was accompanying her, telling staffers she did not want her parents to find out about the relationship.[15] No employee at either clinic objected to the situation, and a receptionist at one facility "told Rose to say she was 16, because if she was 15, the clinic would have to make a report to the police."[15]

In February 2011, Rose released undercover videos from Planned Parenthood facilities in several cities. These show an unidentified man and woman posing as a pimp and a prostitute, soliciting advice from Planned Parenthood staff on how to procure abortions and birth control for underage sex workers whom the pimp "manages."[16][17] Rose said that the videos proved that Planned Parenthood intentionally breaks laws and covers up abuse.[18] In response to the videos, Planned Parenthood claimed to have reported the incidents to the FBI[19] but also stated that over 11,000 staffers "who have contact with patients and teens" would be "retrained." Planned Parenthood also claimed to have reported to the FBI at least 12 visits to its clinics by the man in the videos prior to their publication.[19][20]

No criminal charges or investigations resulted from the videos. Rose asked Ken Cuccinelli, then the attorney general of Virginia, to investigate Planned Parenthood as a result of the videos. He conceded during a Fox interview that he lacks "an actual case of it on film" – meaning a case that involves victims instead of actors pretending to run a sex-slave business. Cuccinelli went on to say, "But what you do have is clearly an open willingness of several organizations, meaning subsidiaries of Planned Parenthood nationally in the same category, sex trafficking of minors, and an open willingness to participate in this."[21]

Live Action national counsel Peter Breen said an actual case is not needed, comparing the Live Action videos to the undercover journalism in NBC's To Catch a Predator.[21] United States Attorney General Eric Holder declined to pursue charges in the matter, stating, "It is my understanding that the FBI actually has looked at that matter" and that "prosecution was declined in that matter."[22]

In May 2012, Rose released a series of videos showing employees at Planned Parenthood and National Abortion Federation centers advising a woman pretending to be a pregnant mother seeking an abortion on the grounds that her child was female when she preferred a male child, commonly referred to as a sex-selective abortion.

After the first video (captured in Austin, TX)[23] was released, Planned Parenthood denied supporting sex-selective abortion and fired the employee featured in the tape.[24]

Another release showed employees at two Arizona abortion facilities – Camelback Family Planning in Phoenix and the Tucson Women's Center in Tucson – instructing the investigator to suppress her reason for seeking the abortion. After hearing that the investigator desires to abort her fetus for being female, the Phoenix counselor tells her, "Don't let it be known!," while the surgical assistant in Tucson says, "I'll just forget about it ... but just be sure not to mention it [to the abortion doctor]." Sex-selective abortion is illegal in Arizona.[25] Neither the two taped clinics nor the NAF took any action following the release.

Inhuman undercover videos

In the spring of 2013, Rose released a series of undercover videos documenting late-term abortion doctors' stated policy toward children born alive as the result of a failed abortion attempt.[26] The video release coincided with intense media scrutiny of the ongoing Kermit Gosnell murder trial. These include a video where Cesare Santangelo, a Washington, D.C. abortion doctor, admits that he would let a child die if born alive during an abortion.[27][28]

Live Action's editing of the Inhuman videos has been called "misleading" by critics such as William Saletan in a Slate article which criticized the videos as "orchestrated to embarrass doctors and their clinics."[29]

In 2013, U.S. Representative Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) showed Live Action's Arizona video from the Inhuman campaign as support for HR 1797, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would ban the majority of abortions after 20 weeks' (five months') gestation throughout the United States.[30] The bill eventually passed in the House, by a vote of 228 to 196.[31] It has not since advanced to the senate for debate and has not become law.[32]

Recognition and awards

In 2008, Rose was awarded $50,000 in the annual "Life Prizes" awards, sponsored by the Gerard Health Foundation, a pro-life charity.[33] She also received the "Person of the Year Malachi Award" from Operation Rescue that same year.[13]

In 2010, she was named a "Young Leader" by the pro-life non-profit Susan B. Anthony List.[34]

In July 2013, National Journal included Rose in their list of "The 25 Most Influential Washington Women Under 35."[35]

In 2014, Rose was named among Christianity Today's "33 under 33."[36]

References

  1. 1 2 "20-Year-Old College Student Becomes Rising Star in Anti-Abortion Movement". Foxnews.com. Reuters. 28 May 2009.
  2. ↑ "After videos, Senate Republicans target Planned Parenthood vote". Reuters. 28 Jul 2015. Lila Rose, a leading anti-abortion campaigner.
  3. ↑ "Planned Parenthood plots largest-ever campaign blitz in 2014". FoxNews.com. 27 Feb 2014. Archived from the original on 18 June 2015. Lila Rose, president and founder of Pro-Life group Live Action, said Planned Parenthood's plans to spend millions on the elections should fuel calls to strip taxpayer funding for the group.
  4. ↑ "Philly abortion murder trial has national impact". Associated Press. 4 May 2013. One anti-abortion group, Live Action, has used the case to publicize the latest in a series of undercover videos it has made at abortion clinics.
  5. ↑ Jason Berger (30 Mar 2011). "Anti-Abortion Group Accuses Planned Parenthood of Lying About Mammogram Services". FoxNews.com.
  6. ↑ "Supreme Court rules Texas abortion clinics can remain open". Associated Press. 29 June 2015. Lila Rose, president of Live Action, an anti-abortion advocacy group.
  7. 1 2 3 Abcarian, Robin (April 26, 2009), "Anti-abortion movement gets a new-media twist", The Los Angeles Times, retrieved October 1, 2013
  8. ↑ Bell, Justin (2012-02-03). "How Lila Rose Became Pro-Life … and Catholic". National Catholic Register. Retrieved 2013-05-01.
  9. ↑
  10. ↑
  11. ↑ Darling, Adelaide (January 19, 2013), "Lila Rose highlights role of faith in fighting abortion", Catholic News Agency, retrieved October 3, 2013, When Rose went to UCLA for her undergraduate degree, she took Live Action with her.
  12. ↑ Coller, Andie (18 September 2009). "Conservatives use liberal playbook". Politico. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
  13. 1 2 Berkowitz, Bill (June 8, 2011), "Planned Parenthood 'Stung' By Lila Rose", Religion Dispatches, retrieved February 19, 2011
  14. ↑ Jonsson, Patrik (2011-02-04), For Lila Rose, Planned Parenthood video 'sting' is about revolution, Christian Science Monitor, retrieved 2011-02-06
  15. 1 2 Ross Douthat, "The Politics of Pregnancy Counseling", The New York Times, December 3, 2009 (accessed 18 May 2010)
  16. ↑ Live Action: Child Sex Trafficking
  17. ↑ Anti-abortion group releases more video of Planned Parenthood
  18. ↑ US fight over abortion heats up again
  19. 1 2 Planned Parenthood Seeks FBI Probe into Possible Ploy by Anti-Abortion Group
  20. ↑ Martinez, Michael (February 9, 2011), "Planned Parenthood to retrain after anti-abortion group videos", CNN, retrieved February 24, 2011
  21. 1 2 Lila Rose vs. Planned Parenthood
  22. ↑ "Holder: No Prosecution in Connection With Planned Parenthood Video Sting". Fox News. 2011-03-01. Retrieved 2011-04-19.
  23. ↑ Sex-Selection in America: Part 1 – Undercover in Texas
  24. ↑
  25. ↑ x 2012 Arizona Revised Statutes – Title 13 Criminal Code
  26. ↑ Inhuman: Undercover in America's Late-Term Abortion Industry
  27. ↑ Inhuman: Washington, D.C., April 29, 2013
  28. ↑ Weekly Standard, April 29, 2013
  29. ↑ Slate, May 16, 2013
  30. ↑ House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice Hearing: H.R. 1797, May 23, 2013 Archived June 9, 2013, at the Wayback Machine.
  31. ↑ Roll Call 251 on H.R. 1797
  32. ↑ "H.R.1797 - Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act". Congress.gov. Retrieved 5 October 2015.
  33. ↑ "Life Prizes Announces Award Winners Lila Rose". Archived from the original on 2011-02-07.
  34. ↑ Susan B. Anthony List - Past Young Leader Awardees
  35. ↑ National Journal
  36. ↑ "33 Under 33". ChristianityToday.com. Retrieved 2015-10-28.
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