Lila Rose: Undercover agent, organizer… and exporter of U.S. culture wars?

Who is Lila Rose?

Lila Rose, the founder and President of Live Action, is the brain behind the “undercover” videos attacking Planned Parenthood. The latest series was launched last week with a video purports to reveal that that the healthcare provider sells fetal body parts on the black market. While this newest “sting” is the project of a group called the Center for Medical Progress, the project director David Daleiden is following in the footsteps of his former colleague and boss, Lila Rose. Both Rose and Daleiden were mentored by James O’Keefe, who’s Project Veritas attempted to use undercover videos to shut down ACORN a few years ago.

Origin Story

According to her own account, at just 13 years old, Lila began scheming ways to end abortion in this country. At 14, she started a “Pro-Life Club” in her parents’ living room in San Jose, California. And when Rose was just 15, that club turned into a bonafide anti-abortion fringe organization. With the support of friends and family, Rose began raising money for her efforts to “investigate and expose” the “abortion industry.” While studying undergrad at UCLA, in her freshman year Rose posed as a pregnant woman and walked into the student health center seeking “counseling.” Rose reported  that the campus nurse told her “UCLA doesn’t support women who are pregnant” and referred her to nearby abortion care providers. She was hooked.

First Caper

In fall 2006, at the age of 18, she and James O’Keefe then set out on their first undercover video aimed directly at a local Planned Parenthood clinic. Rose posed as a 15 year-old woman who was pregnant as result of a rape. The resulting YouTube video gave her the attention she wanted, and even resulted in her first interview on the O’Reilly Factor.

Since then, Lila Rose’s place within the “pro-life” movement has solidified and grown to an almost celebrity status. Live Action’s budget has quadrupled to over $1,000,000 since first filing tax returns in 2008. And since graduating from UCLA in 2010, Rose has released more videos from her undercover investigations of Planned Parenthood clinics. Last year she appeared on CNN’s Crossfire, where she debated NARAL Pro Choice America’s Illyse Hogue.

Evil Plan

But Lila Rose isn’t just interested in shutting down Planned Parenthood, she’s taking her show on the road. Rose is a part of a growing movement of young American activists opposing reproductive rights for women around the world. At this year’s annual United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, held in New York in March, Lila Rose was given a huge opportunity. The Holy See (the Vatican’s diplomatic arm and representation at the UN) reserved the largest conference room at UN headquarters and gave Lila the mic.

The event, titled “Young and Courageous Because Life Can’t Wait,” was widely attended by a couple hundred local youth activists and anti-abortion rights activists in town for the Commission. H.E. Archbishop Bernadito Anza delivered a statement at the event in which he thanked Rose for her “courage and vitality.” The International Youth Coalition (C-fam’s youth arm) promoted the event as an opportunity to hear Rose tell her story of “[taking] a passionate stand such a young age in defense of women and the unborn.”

Despite this being her first time speaking at the UN, Rose proceeded to speak eloquently for nearly an hour about her experiences working to “expose” Planned Parenthood through her undercover videos. She encouraged the largely “pro-life” crowd to stand firm in their anti-abortion rights activism, even in the cases of rape and incest, saying, “do we take out the crime, the penalty for that crime, on the innocent third party that might be that child?”

Lila Rose received thunderous applause by the crowd after delivering her closing remarks. C-Fam praised Rose’s speech at UN as a welcomed sight to the Commission on the Status of Women which, according to the organization’s head Austin Ruse, “has traditionally been a kind of radical feminist jamboree.”

And at the United Nations, Rose one of many young rising stars coming up through the ranks of the international anti-abortion rights movement, under the watchful eye and support of the Holy See and far-right civil society organizations like Family Watch International, Priests for Life, and others. These groups are relentless in their attempts to undermine sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), especially access to abortion care, at the UN.

Dangerous Disguise

At the UN, Rose presents herself as a “human rights defender,” fighting for women’s rights and empowerment. But she, and her peers, use the human rights framing to completely remove autonomy and agency from women when it comes to their reproductive rights and access to care. Rose notes in her speech that right to an abortion is “against a woman in every way. Against a woman physically, emotionally, psychologically. It’s against a woman’s dignity to turn against her own flesh and blood.”

At the ripe old age of 26, Rose is the “darling” of the American anti-abortion rights movement. She’s a good speaker, she’s well-connected, and she’s ready to take her work to new heights. Lila Rose is on her way to join the likes of Sharon Slater and Chris Smith in exporting U.S. opposition to abortion rights around the world, at the expense of women’s lives and well-being.

Kryptonite – Expose the lies

Lila and her cronies, like David Daleiden, will stop at nothing in their attempts to deny access to safe abortion care here in the U.S. and around the world. The twenty-somethings opposing these rights are well-trained and well-funded by the Religious Right. Fortunately, they are no match for FACT-based, human rights-framed arguments that get to the heart of the SRHR movement. Young people in the United States advocating for universal access to SRHR must be loud in speaking out against those who seek to take their harmful rhetoric across our borders.

This blog was originally posted on Advocates for Youth’s Amplify Your Voice site.