Lila Rose: The New Darling of Anti-Choice Right-Wingers

By Bill Berkowitz, Religion Dispatches. Posted June 24, 2009.

On the other hand, according to Diane Quest, PPFA’s Director of Media Relations, “Attempts to strip Planned Parenthood of funding have been relatively unsuccessful because elected officials know preventive care is good public policy.” Quest told RD that:

In this economic downturn, more and more Americans are in need of quality, affordable health care, straining the health care safety net system even more. Planned Parenthood health centers provide health care services to more than three million people a year and 97% of those services are preventive, including wellness exams, cancer screenings, STD testing and treatment, and birth control. (italics added)

Support from the Old Guard

Over the past few years Rose has not only received considerable publicity from anti-choice media outlets, she now has been surrounded by a veteran group of conservative supporters. Last September she was a featured speaker at the Family Research Council’s Values Voter Summit, where she told the audience:

When I walk into Planned Parenthoods across the country, I am flattered to see my picture on the wall. It is because to Planned Parenthood, I am -- quote -- a ‘known anti-choice extremist.’ This is one of the better compliments I have received.

The Times also reported that David French, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal group, “gave her free advice when Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles threatened action, and appeared at her side during an interview with conservative TV talk-show host Bill O’Reilly.”

She is also receiving support from the Washington, DC-based CRC Public Relations, a firm “that represents conservative clients and had a hand in the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign that targeted Democrat John F. Kerry during the 2004 presidential race.”

Although she was hesitant to talk to the Times about the funding of Live Action Films, the group she created in 2008 (Federal tax records are not yet available) earlier this year, she received $50,000 as a winner of the Gerard Health Foundation’s inaugural Life Prizes awards. The Gerard Health Foundation is a Massachusetts-based charity founded by Raymond Ruddy, a Catholic businessman who funds anti-choice and abstinence-only sex education efforts.

In the press release announcing the award, she was cited for

Her brave work… reveal[ing] the new evidence necessary to build strong cases against the abortion industry, and her creativity in using the media to document Planned Parenthood’s abuses [which] has educated and mobilized youth across the country and gained the attention of the national media.

Cathy Ruse, Executive Director of Life Prizes, said that Rose “is the perfect example of why veterans in the pro-life movement should have great hope in the future. She has brought a boldness, creativity, and passion to the pro-life cause that is causing the country to take notice. We look forward to all that is to come from this brilliant young woman.”

It is certainly true that with her media savvy and financial support from veteran culture warriors, Lila Rose may well play an important role in the fight for -- or in this case, against -- women’s reproductive rights.

See more stories tagged with: anti-choice, abortion, women, conservative, lila rose

Bill Berkowitz is a freelance writer covering right-wing groups and movements.

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