Lila Rose

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Lila Rose in 2009.
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Abortion
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Medically approved
In the back alley
The direct and intentional killing of a child in the womb is not medically necessary — it never has been; it never will be. Removing an ectopic pregnancy — that’s when a baby’s in the fallopian tube and they are going to die because you can’t grow there and the mother might die because that could rupture — removing that child is not to intentionally kill that child; that’s not an abortion procedure — that’s a medical procedure because that baby’s in a hostile environment and that mother’s life is in danger. And I wish we had the medical technology to still save that baby’s life, but that is not an abortion.
—Lila Rose, jumping through convoluted hoops of arbitrary definitions to justify her so-called pro-life views.[1]

Lila Grace Rose (1988–) is an American anti-abortion activist. Homeschooled as a child, Rose was a 17-year-old history major at UCLA when she and a friend began conducting so-called "sting" operations at Planned Parenthood clinics in 2006, posing as abortion-seeking 13-year-olds impregnated by adult men in order to try to entrap clinic counselors into saying things that make it look like they are okay with letting statutory rape go unreported.[2] Rose secretly tapes these counseling sessions, cherry picks the ones where something out of line is said, then edits the juiciest parts thereof into "exposé" videos that she posts on YouTube.[2]

In 2006, Rose collaborated with conservative provocateur James O'Keefe, recording calls O'Keefe made to Planned Parenthood clinics posing as a racist interested in making a donation "specifically for the abortions of African-American babies" and releasing the ones in which staff appeared not to express opposition (or simply to humor a seemingly disturbed person who could potentially know how to make pipe bombs).[3][4] Their intent was to give credence to the notion that Planned Parenthood was founded by Margaret Sanger, an advocate of eugenics (true), with the intent of wiping out the black race (false).[3][4]

During her time at UCLA, the disingenuous ingénue also founded an anti-abortion student magazine called The Advocate,[5] apparently unaware there's been a magazine of that name around for forty years now, which isn't exactly subscription material for the social conservative set.[3]

At the Values Voters Summit in 2009, Rose delivered a speech in which she revealed she doesn't understand that desensitization makes people care less, not more, and that she hears Hallelujah when everyone else hears grunting, moaning, and squeaking bedsprings:[6]

If I could insist — this might sound a little strange — but if I could insist, as long as they are legal in our nation, abortions would be done in the public square, until we were so sick and tired of see them that we would do away with the injustice altogether. Maybe then we would value the unborn child as we value the one-year-old child just learning to walk. And maybe then we might hear angels singing when we ponder the glory of conception, that first beginning of human life.[7][3]

Also sometime in 2009, the Protestant-raised Rose converted to Catholicism at an Opus Dei parish.[8]

Despite her ardent anti-abortion and pro-adoption position, Rose sent out a mocking tweet to Pete Buttigieg after he revealed that he and his husband have adopted twins. She replied to the backlash by doubling down on her homophobia and promoting an awful book.[9]

References[edit]

  1. Brown, L. (September 10, 2019). "Fact-Checking Facebook: Pro-Life Doctors Say ‘Abortion Is Never Medically Necessary’". National Catholic Register. 
  2. 2.0 2.1 Abcarian, Robin (April 26, 2009). "Anti-abortion movement gets a new-media twist". Los Angeles Times. 
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "Who Is Lila Rose?". Media Matters for America. 
  4. 4.0 4.1 Stan, Adele M.. "New Tactics and Coalitions Take Aim at Planned Parenthood". Public Eye.  Spring 2009.
  5. Berkowitz, Bill (June 24, 2009). "Lila Rose: The New Darling of Anti-Choice Right-Wingers". Alternet. 
  6. "Lila Rose 2009 Values Voter Speech: Part 2 of 2".  (from the Live Action channel, if you have a YouTube account please click dislike)
  7. "The Deceptive Video 'Sting' Attacking Planned Parenthood". Right Wing Watch. 
  8. Bell, Justin (February 3, 2012). "How Lila Rose Became Pro-Life ... And Catholic". National Catholic Register. 
  9. Baker-Jordan, S. (September 8, 2021). "Pete Buttigieg’s kids will be fine without a mom". The Independent.