Home
Archive
Newsletters
Video
Blogs
Discuss
About
Search
Donate
Advertise

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

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


Anti-choice crusader Lila Rose has devoted her considerable media savvy to depriving other women of their reproductive rights.

Share and save this post:

      

      

Share on Facebook       

AlterNet Social Networks:
follow us on twitter
find us on Facebook

In Special Coverage

Belief:
What if People Actually Treated Religion as Just a Metaphor (Like Trekkies and Secular Jews)?
Greta Christina

Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace:
What Happened to That Prosperity Tax-Cutters Promised Us?
Sam Pizzigati

DrugReporter:
The War on Weed: Marijuana Is Basically Harmless -- The Monumentally Stupid Drug War Is Not
Jim Hightower

Environment:
The Real Scandal Over Climate Change Isn't About Hacked Emails But the Media's Coverage
Alex Steffen

Food:
10 Tips for a Sustainable Thanksgiving
Sarah Newman

Health and Wellness:
Is the House's Health Bill Really Worse than Nothing?
Joshua Holland

Immigration:
Hate Group, FAIR, Is Looking for "Ethnically Ambiguous" Actors to Amplify Its Racism
Adam Luna

Media and Technology:
The Memory Scrub About Why Ft. Hood Happened Is Almost Complete ... If It Weren't for Archives
Mark Ames

Movie Mix:
The Yes Men: Pranksters Out to Fix the World
Mark Engler

Politics:
Just When You Thought It Was Safe: 3 Potential Obstacles to Health-Care Reform
Adele M. Stan

Reproductive Justice and Gender:
Why Can't We Look Away From Sarah Palin?
Vanessa Richmond

Rights and Liberties:
Obama Quietly Backs Renewing Patriot Act Surveillance Provisions
Willam Fisher

Sex and Relationships:
Hot Mormon Muffins and Models for Jesus: What's With All the Sexy Christians?
Liz Langley

Take Action:
G-20 Meetings: Nothing Much Happened in the Suites, and There Was Too Much Punch in the Streets
Laura Flanders

Water:
Poseidon's Financial Shell Game: Why Is a Private Desalination Plant Asking for Public Money?
Peter Gleick

World:
Obama Will Announce 34,000-Troop Escalation in Afghanistan 'Within Days'

More stories by Bill Berkowitz

Advertisement
Upcoming AlterNet stories on Digg

he’s a committed and politically savvy 20-year-old UCLA history major who, posing as a much younger girl, goes into clinics asking for help with an unwanted pregnancy -- and films the results in the form of an exposé and posts them online.

Meet Lila Rose, president of Live Action Films and the new face of the anti-choice movement.

Steeped in conservative Christian politics, Rose has already benefited from the generous assistance of powerful players like communications firm The Leadership Institute, a high-powered conservative Christian legal organization, and a well-known DC-based Public Relations firm. She was the recipient of Operation Rescue’s 2008 Person of the Year Malachi Award, and her campaign at UCLA to urge administrators to cut ties with Planned Parenthood received the endorsement of Dr. Alveda King, the ultra-conservative niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Fresh from organizing the first-ever “Exposing Abortion” student conference at UC Berkeley, and from being dressed down by U.S. News & World Report columnist Bonnie Erbe, Rose launched a pro-life magazine at UCLA called, ironically, The Advocate. She appears regularly on talk radio programs and cable news shows, including a recent visit with Glenn Beck on Fox.

Critics have called her devious, deceitful, and dishonest. Supporters say she’s a breath of fresh air; a gutsy player who defies stereotyping.

She’s passionate, persuasive, ready for prime time, and she has Planned Parenthood in her sights.

Smile, You’re on “Live” TV

While Rose’s undercover “sting” videos posted on YouTube (surreptitious encounters at Planned Parenthood clinics in Indianapolis, Memphis, Los Angeles, and Tucson) will never garner Susan Boyle-type numbers, her videos could still have an effect on the fortunes of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, a national provider of a wide array of sexual and reproductive health services, including abortion.

Since 2006, Rose and a friend have been approaching Planned Parenthood clinics pretending to be underage girls, pregnant by older men, seeking an abortion. Their aim: to catch a Planned Parenthood staffer or volunteer violating the law by counseling the young girls to lie about the ages of their adult boyfriends. The videos, according to the Los Angeles Times are then “boiled down to five minutes, with portentous music and fast cuts to heighten the drama,” and posted both to Rose’s LiveAction.org Web site and YouTube.

“There is this stereotype of who we pro-life leaders are, and for the most part it would be white middle-aged religious men trying to impose their will on women,” said the Rev. Patrick Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition. “So now with Lila, you bring this young, fresh college student that completely blows any stereotypes away. No one is going to accuse Lila of being mean, vindictive, and harsh.”

New Media Twist on an Old Strategy


Digg!    Share on facebook   submit to reddit    Bookmark on Delicious   Stumble This  

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

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

Liked this story? Get top stories in your inbox each week from AlterNet! Sign up now »


Advertisement
Advertisement

 

You've chosen to turn comments off for the entire site. Would you like to turn them back on?
  • AlterNetYour turn

Support AlterNet
Do you value the information you're getting from AlterNet? Please show your support with a tax-deductible donation.


Feedback
Tell us how we're doing.

Advertisement
Advertisement