Live Action founder uses media technology to continue abortion fight

Live Action founder Lila Rose of Los Angeles discusses the organization’s undercover investigations at Planned Parenthood abortion clinics during the “Celebrate Life” dinner on Sept. 28 at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis. Rose also started The Advocate, a pro-life student magazine now distributed at 15 college campuses in the U.S. (Photo by Mary Ann Wyand)

By Mary Ann Wyand

Pro-life activist Lila Rose, a recent UCLA graduate and the founder of Live Action in Los Angeles, is shaking up the billion-dollar abortion industry in the U.S. by using media technology during the organization’s undercover investigations to expose legal and medical violations at Planned Parenthood clinics.

Posing as a pregnant teenage girl, Rose goes into abortion clinics throughout the country and secretly videotapes counseling sessions with staff members that have routinely encouraged her to lie about her age and the age of her adult “boyfriend” then failed to report this alleged sex abuse to state child protective services officials.

Her keynote speech during the 28th annual “Celebrate Life” dinner, sponsored by Right to Life of

Indianapolis on Sept. 28 at the Indiana Convention Center, prompted applause numerous times from nearly 1,000 pro-life supporters.

The youth-led Live Action organization is dedicated to building a culture of life and ending abortion, Rose said, through the use of investigative journalism and state-of-the-art media to educate government officials, legislators and the public about Planned Parenthood’s deceitful business practices. The nonprofit organization’s nationwide campaign goal is to help close abortion clinics.

In just seven years, Live Action undercover videos have prompted officials in several states to take action against the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its state affiliates, including its abortion clinics in Bloomington and Indianapolis.

The pro-life youth organization’s undercover work also led government officials in Tennessee to revoke $1.1 million in state subsidies to the nation’s largest abortion provider.

In Alabama, Birmingham’s health department placed a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic on probation after Live Action helped identify nine violations.

“There is no greater injustice in the world today than the shedding of the innocent blood of unborn children in abortion,” Rose said. “I have dedicated my life to this work [of ending abortion], as many others have, because I can see that we will never [be able to] build a culture of life if we do not ultimately respect the lives of the unborn and the dignity of the human person. We must build our society, as it once was founded, upon ultimate respect for life, on the right to life.”

Rose said she learned about the holocaust of abortion at age 9 when she found her parents’ copy of Handbook on Abortion, a pro-life education manual written by Dr. J.C. Wilke.

“I opened it and [realized that] I was looking at the image of a tiny child, maybe 10 weeks old, with little arms and little legs, which had been the victim of a first-trimester abortion,” she said. “In horror, I thought, ‘How can anyone do this to a baby?’ … I began to pray and asked God, ‘What can I do?’ ”

At age 15, she started Live Action with a group of friends in addition to participating in pro-life sidewalk counseling outside abortion clinics.

“We’re a nonprofit 501(c)(3) pro-life organization,” Rose said, “built around destroying another organization that is the biggest abortion chain in the country.”

Since her first undercover video at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Los Angeles four years ago, Rose said, she discovered “from the research of other pro-life activists that … the abortion industry had so much to hide, and that in the process of killing unborn children they were deceiving women, breaking state laws, … statutes meant to protect underage girls, and there was racism going on. The more I learned, the more disgusted I became and the more eager I [was] to somehow get this truth out to the public, … the legal authorities, [and] the state authorities that could take this evidence and conduct investigations.”

Rose said Planned Parenthood pregnancy options counselors casually told her to “lie about your age,” then assured her that “we don’t care” or “we don’t need to know” and “you can have a secret abortion.”

Pro-life sidewalk counseling outside clinics saves lives, she said, because women and teenage girls experiencing a crisis pregnancy are looking for reasons not to have an abortion.

“I think it’s important that every pro-life person knows the kind of counseling [misinformation] used at abortion clinics,” Rose said. “Planned Parenthood clinics across the country are using lies [about abortion] on women and vulnerable girls,” she said. “There is so much darkness inside these clinics.”

Informed consent laws are meant to protect underage girls, she said, but the abortion industry repeatedly breaks laws.

“In the next six months, we are sending a lot more investigators” into abortion clinics, Rose said. “There is a lot of work to be done. … I look forward to the day when public opinion pushes the people in power to do the right thing [and] shut down organizations like Planned Parenthood. … By the grace of God, who is on our side and wants us to succeed, we will see the culture of life in our nation again.” †