Lila Rose first began investigating abortion clinics as a college student in California more than a decade ago. She says she quickly discovered that Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, “covers up child sexual abuse.”
As founder and president of the pro-life organization Live Action, Rose, now 32, has conducted countless undercover investigations into Planned Parenthood clinics. She joins the “Problematic Women” podcast today to discuss her new book “Fighting for Life: Becoming a Force for Change in a Wounded World” and how she became passionate about the pro-life movement.
Also on today’s show, we discuss a recent court case over Idaho’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act. And as always, we’ll crown our Problematic Woman of the Week.
Listen to the podcast below or read the lightly edited transcript.
Virginia Allen: I am so pleased to be joined by pro-life activist Lila Rose. She is the founder and president of Live Action and the author of the brand new book “Fighting for Life: Becoming a Force for Change in a Wounded World.” Lila, welcome to “Problematic Women.”
Lila Rose: Thanks for having me.
Allen: Congratulations on the new book. I have loved reading it. It really, really is excellent. You did an amazing job with it.
Rose: Thank you. Well, I am thrilled that the baby is born. It’s finally out. … I have a son and I’m actually pregnant with our second. And birth was hard, but writing the book and releasing it has been even harder than labor and delivery.
Allen: Right, that says a lot.
Rose: I mean, some people I’m sure it’s easier for them for writing books. But it’s worth it, though. It’s definitely, you’re like, “Oh, the baby’s here.” It’s great.
Allen: Obviously, like you’re saying, writing a book is a challenge. It’s a long process, it’s a lot to bite off. But I love how in the book, you really tell your story and you tell the story of Live Action. So let’s start at the beginning and talk a little bit about that story. How did you first get involved in the pro-life movement and, as a little kid, what sparked your interest in the program?
Rose: Of course. So, as you’re saying, I designed “Fighting for Life,” this book, to … it tells a lot of my story, and I’ll share that onset moment. But it’s designed so anybody who feels passionate about a cause, or who feels like they’re called to something, to go fight for life, or for something that matters, what does it look like? How do you get involved? What are the stages that are important? What are the tools that help?
And I start the book talking about when I got started, and how heartbreak was an inspiration for me. Feeling heartbroken over this really [tragic] problem, this tragedy of abortion, and how important that is for anybody, for any cause that we’re looking at, to allow our hearts to be broken. And … I’m from a big family, I’m one of eight kids, so pro-life right there.
But they weren’t activists, my parents. They were just beautiful, passionate educators, and lovers of kids, obviously. And so we had ultrasound pictures on the refrigerator. I saw my little sister’s picture, and I just marveled at this beautiful little child that was growing, my sibling in my mom’s womb. And when I found out about abortion for the first time, it was as a young girl, around the time of the birth of my sister Katarina, actually.
And it was by finding this book in my parents’ house that they had. I don’t even think they knew they had it, but it was called “A Handbook on Abortion.” And in the middle of this book, I found a centerfold with photographs, and they were pictures of abortion victims. So I think anybody that actually sees what abortion does to that embryo, that fetus, that pre-born child, it’s heartbreaking.
I saw a 10-week-old, first-trimester child with newly formed arms and legs, a tiny, newly formed little face, who had been the victim of the most prevalent abortion procedure, which is the suction abortion. Which is like a powerful household vacuum, [but] 30 to 50 times more powerful than a household vacuum, this instrument that rips the child into pieces. And I saw this photograph of this child killed by abortion, and I was just totally heartbroken. I thought, “Is this real? Is this really happening? Can I do something about it?”
I learned at the time there were 3,000 abortions legally a day in America, which is the leading cause of death to this day. It’s the leading cause of death in America, the abortion death rate. And that inspired me.
I mean, I cared about a lot of other causes too. I was interested in a lot of things, but I kept coming back to this injustice because I saw society accepting it. I saw that it was legalized, and I saw the sheer death toll of innocent children.
And I thought, “How can we say this is for women? How can we advance ourselves as women on the bodies of our children? This is unjust at its core.” And so that inspired me to start Live Action.
Allen: Wow. That is so weighty, especially for a little kid, to begin to comprehend what abortion actually is. So what was that journey, then, to starting Live Action?
Rose: Iit was a lot of twists and turns. And I talk a lot in the book about how do you get started in a fight, in a cause? You’re like, “I’m one person. What can I do?” Especially if you’re young. I was still a student. I was actually in high school and a freshman when I started Live Action. And it was after a lot of years of studying, I was reading books about abortion.
I was also interested in other causes like homelessness, children with disability, famine, and economic poverty. Just different issues worldwide, in the country. And I was very interested in humanitarian efforts. That was my bent as a kid. Very, I guess, what is the word … precocious, as a little girl, looking at all these things. But I just kept coming back to this issue of abortion as the greatest crisis.
I mean, Mother Teresa, I read her words as a young girl, and she called abortion the greatest destroyer of peace in the world. She said this is it. And that moral clarity gave me the focus to want to start pro-life efforts. I didn’t know where to start. I’d called up pro-life organizations. There were none doing education in the Bay area, in San Jose, California, where I grew up. So I found the pregnancy center locally. There’s thousands of these pregnancy centers across the country, pro-life centers.
I started volunteering. My grandmother had already been volunteering there, so that was a great connection that I already had. Thank God for my grandma. I started to find the abortion clinic locally. And I found out that there were sidewalk counselors that went there every day they had abortions, and they said I could go and pray, just quietly, peacefully.
So I got some friends together at 14. I’m like, OK, I’m just going to show up and pray, just go there and see what happens. Totally devastating to watch young girls crying, sobbing women walk into this center where they kill children [in the womb] through six months old. It was a Planned Parenthood that killed children up to 24 weeks. And I just remember standing there feeling so helpless on the sidewalk, praying, just thinking: “What can I do more than what I’m doing?” I mean, prayer is powerful, but I need to do more.
So finally, I get in touch with this guy who was part of this other organization in central California. And he agrees to drive to San Jose to train me and some friends on how to be pro-life apologists. To give pro-life talks on why abortion is wrong, fetal development, the risk to women.
So it was lots of twists and turns to start Live Action as an educational group, starting with these presentations to other schools and churches. And we had to beg pastors to let us present. I mean, there were so many obstacles to start. But the lesson, which is what really matters in all of this, is if you’re passionate about something, do not give up. Keep trying, keep calling, keep cold-calling, keep researching. You will eventually, if you don’t give up, find the momentum and the people that are already involved in the work you’re interested in. And you will start to build inroads.
But the key is keep going, Don’t just say, “Oh, I did an internet search and I couldn’t find a group to join.” I mean, keep trying, keep looking, keep asking. If you’re a Christian, Jesus says: “Knock and the door will be opened. Seek, and you will find. Ask, and you will be answered.” And it’s true. I mean, from a human level, there are people out there, you just got to find them. And so that was the early lesson and work of Live Action.
Allen: I love that. I feel like that’s such a theme that ran all throughout your book, that runs all throughout your book, is that “Don’t give up, keep pushing on doors. If there’s not an organization for you, start one.“
Rose: Right. Exactly.
Allen: I love your persistence. It’s so good.
Rose: I mean, they talk about boss women, right?
Allen: Yep.
Rose: If you’re a boss woman and the cause you know matters is not being championed, go champion it. And you got this. I mean, and I didn’t ever … I am not a Wonder Woman. I needed help. I needed guidance. I needed support. And I talk a lot in the book about that. I mean, we’re human people with our wounds and our struggles and our hurts. And so there’s a lot in the book about, you could say, personal development or about getting support. And you could even say self-care for a trendy word, but an important one, or a world changer. Because we’re not men or women of steel, we’re humans with our struggles. And so there’s a lot in the book about finding mentors and how to do that.
Building a team, working through your own issues, your own stuff. I had some serious issues in high school. I struggled with depression and even self-harm. I had a lot of self-esteem issues, and having to work through that, because those are roadblocks to my work. I mean, if you’re not caring for yourself, if you’re living out of your wound and not out of your healing, you’re going to have a real rough time making that beautiful difference in the world you’re called to make. So that’s a big part of the secret to any sort of change-making in the world.
Allen: Well, it’s such a holistic approach. You’re so right. We need each other, we need to be taking care of ourselves, and all of those things move us forward in accomplishing our goal, our mission, our purpose. So, so good. But share, if you would, a little bit about the movement and the process that Live Action went through, especially in college, when you decided, “OK, I’m actually going to go into Planned Parenthoods. I’m going to investigate what is happening there.” What spurred you to say, “Yep. I’m going to do that.”
Rose: Yes, absolutely. So, Live Action. I’m starting it in high school, doing these presentations to churches and Christian schools that let us give presentations on pro-life. And then I get to UCLA, where I chose to go to college. And I picked the school in part because I wanted to reach people. I’m like, “I don’t want to go to a Christian school or a small private school, where maybe most people are already pro-life or should be.” I picked the school because I felt like this is a good place for activism, and I can get a degree. That’s also important, obviously. For some, anyways.
So I get there and I start seeing more explicitly the bias, OK? One of the big reasons abortion exists, and any time there’s an injustice that’s accepted by society, you’re going to see the institutions supporting the injustice. And so in the situation of abortion, most of academia supports abortion. Like professors, faculty, schools, public schools. Big Tech supports abortion. Most of the CEOs and the staffers are far-left, pro-abortion. Media, mainstream media, entertainment media, like the Hollywood actresses wearing the Planned Parenthood pin to the Oscars. Most media groups are very pro-abortion. The editors are pro-abortion.
Politics. The Democratic Party should be pro-life. It is 100% pro-abortion through all nine months for any reason, it’s insane. It’s not even what most Democrats believe, but that’s their standard because of the abortion lobby. And so, as a student at college, I realized if I’m going to reach my peers, this is a different ball game than knocking on the doors of churches. I mean, that still matters. I have to do that still, but these kids have never heard the methods. They’ve already had their 12 years of education, and they’re brainwashed, basically, or they’ve never been educated on abortion. They don’t know even about fetal development.
It’s crazy. They think abortion doesn’t even kill a baby, and that it becomes a baby at birth, which is so anti-science and logic. It’s crazy. But how do I break through? And I realized that I wasn’t going to do that through getting media coverage from The Daily Bruin, my campus newspaper, [which] was very pro-abortion. They let me write one time. But all this to say, I started my own magazine to report on pro-life to my fellow students. And then I met James O’Keefe as a college freshmen. He’s now, as you might know, the founder of Project Veritas. He was just banned completely from Twitter, it’s kind of crazy, for exposing CNN. That’s another story.
But James at the time was fresh out of Rutgers University. He was working for a conservative group called The Leadership Institute. And he was traveling around and meeting with college students like myself, with other colleagues, to help them start their student newspapers or their magazine. So I met him and he saw my passion. We talked about it and I said, “I want to do independent reporting on pro-life.”
And I showed him the reporting that had been done by other activists. I mean, there’ve been some incredible investigative reports over the years of abortion clinics, that have not been covered by mainstream media. And so … I was showing that to him and saying, “I want to continue this work.” And so he recommended, he was like, “Well, you can do your own undercover investigative reporting of your campus and of your local abortion clinics. Nothing’s stopping you. Just try.”
And that’s power words for an activist, right? You’re like, “”Oh, I can never do it. I don’t have the qualifications.” It’s like, “No, just try, do some research, put your best foot forward. Blaze the trail. Forge the path.” And I am so grateful for that inspiration because I was like, “You’re right, no one’s doing this. It has to be done. I’m going to try.” And so I started developing investigative reports on local abortion clinics.
Long story short, I’ll just share one of the original ones: Planned Parenthood covers up child sexual abuse. That’s documented in numerous court cases. It was documented by other pro-life activists over the years, who’ve done surveys undercover of abortion clinics. But no one was reporting on this. They weren’t being held to account for it, and they’re mandated reporters for sexual abuse. So Planned Parenthood has to report sexual abuse of minors. They’re mandated reporters by state law, but they just give secret abortions and don’t [report to authorities], because it’s too messy.
If a parent finds out this girl is pregnant by her soccer coach, then they might stop the abortion from happening. I mean, it’s just going to be complicated for Planned Parenthood. And so they don’t report. And so I first documented this by going undercover myself into two Los Angeles abortion clinics as a college freshmen. I posed as a 15-year-old with a much older 23-, 24-year-old boyfriend. And I said, “I’m pregnant. What do I do?” And they’re required by law to report that. But instead they’re like, “Oh, just write a different age on the paperwork. Say you’re older than you are, and we will get you or sell you a secret abortion.” So that was my immediate foray into reporting, and I realized, holy, holy …
This is happening in LA, the first two clinics I go. This, I’m sure, is happening everywhere. No one’s reporting on it. And these are young girls, victimized and abused, and laws that are being broken. The ultimate injustice is abortion, killing that baby, but there are other injustices around that injustice. And so we started to report on that. Planned Parenthood threatened to sue me, cable news picked up the story, and all of a sudden my tapes that they tried to delete off YouTube are on national news for millions of people to see.
And I’m sitting shellshocked in this TV studio in Los Angeles, 18 years old, not knowing what I’m doing. And I’m doing this No. 1-rated cable TV show. But it was all because [of], thanks to James’ inspiration and just the passion that was driving me. I was willing to leave my comfort zone. And I think that’s the rule of a changemaker, leave your comfort zone, and your cause will be rewarded in ways you couldn’t have anticipated.
Allen: That definitely is leaving your comfort zone.
Rose: It was nerve-wracking.
Allen: Do you remember what was going through your head that first day, when you decided, “OK, I’m going to do this, I’m going to go undercover,” and you walked into that Planned Parenthood? What were you thinking?
Rose: I do remember very clearly. My focus was so on the woman, the young girl, who was victimized, the baby that was in danger of abortion that I was representing, I felt very nervous. And in fact, the voice recorder I had, you can hear my heart beating rapidly on it, like a soundtrack to the investigation. But I think that helped focus me to be that persona realistically, because those girls are nervous. They are frightened. They are scared.
And again, I think that’s the power of focus. If we’re really focused and passionate and heartbroken and upset over what we’re fighting for, and want to help who we’re fighting for, then it really channels the emotion in the right direction. And that was the extra power, I guess you could say, of that nervousness at the time.
Allen: We are talking with Lila Rose about her brand new book “Fighting for Life: Becoming a Force for Change in a Wounded World.” So, Lila, you tell so many great stories in the book about your experiences going into Planned Parenthoods. Eventually you became too recognizable, and you started having to send other people in.
But I do want to ask you to share one story that you talk about in the book. You say there was one time where you were posing as a pregnant woman in a Planned Parenthood, and you sat down next to another woman who was pregnant and visibly distressed, and her little niece was there. And it was a powerful moment of seeing two cousins, one in the womb, one outside the womb, sitting together. Just share a little bit about that experience and how it impacted you.
Rose: Of course. So there are certainly certain encounters that are seared in my memory from investigative reporting. And I think this is true of anybody reporting on injustices. And so for me, one of those memories I share in the book in a chapter called “Embrace Their Pain,” because I think that’s part of our fight is not just to fight for the baby. You’re fighting for the mother. You know, you’re fighting for that woman who’s been lied to, who feels alone, who feels cornered, that she has to have this abortion.
Women don’t walk into abortion clinics being like, “Yay, my abortion!” There is the “shout your abortion” thing after the fact, but I think that’s their way to deal with the trauma, quite frankly. But when you walk into an abortion clinic as a woman to have an abortion, you’re usually at your lowest point. This is not a victory moment for you.
And I was sitting undercover in this abortion clinic, posing as a 13-year-old girl. And it was a Planned Parenthood surgical center where they commit abortions. And there were two other women in this waiting room with two little girls. And there were actually two waiting rooms. One was for women with kids, and one was for women without. They actually tried to separate most of the women from anybody who had kids with them, because it was a trigger. You’re in for your abortion, you see a small child, that’s a trigger. You might not want to have your abortion.
And so I’m sitting there and these two women are there, and one of them is showing. She’s probably in their second trimester. And these little girls are playing with these toys that Planned Parenthood had for the women with children. One of the little girls, she’s probably 5 years old, is saying, “Auntie, Auntie,” to the woman who’s pregnant. And she’s kind of pulling on her pant leg. And this woman is looking really upset. She’s stony-faced, looking at the ground, and the little girl is trying to get her attention. And so she jumps up on this woman’s lap, and snuggles close to her abdomen.
And I remember just being fixated, looking at this encounter, looking at a cousin close to her other cousin, unborn. And that day is abortion-scheduled day. This is the day that child was going to be killed, probably a child that’s maybe 20 weeks old or 22 weeks old. I don’t know the exact age of that baby, but they are so close, the love of these cousins, and this child’s going to die. And I was just like, “Oh, what do I do?”
So I start trying to talk to this woman, I’m undercover, but I’m like, “How about we both leave? How about we get out of here?” Because there were sidewalk counselors on the sidewalk outside the abortion clinic, offering women free resources, counseling, prenatal care, job referrals, support, whatever material resources at the center, probably centered on the street. And so in character, I was like, “Why don’t we both leave and go with the people? We don’t need to have our abortions.”
Basically like trying to, kind of [make a] last-ditch effort. And she shakes her head and she’s like, “Just don’t talk to me.” Then a few moments later, the abortion worker comes through the waiting-room door, and calls her name, and takes her in. And it’s just heartrending. That cousin, that child, being walked to their death. This little girl, [a] beautiful 5-year-old, will never know her cousin, doesn’t even know what’s going on, but these are the scenes playing out in America’s abortion clinics every day.
This is what’s happening. These are family members being lost. These are sons, daughters, cousins, siblings. And so it just burned into my memory. And I cried a lot later that evening, after I got out of character and everything else. But it was just more conviction to fight for her. Why was she there? Who failed her in her life? How can we help women from never going in in the first place? And how can we protect those children?
Allen: That’s so powerful. That’s definitely a marking moment, and weighty. Really, really weighty. How has the mission of Live Action, and really the whole organization, changed and shifted over the years? You all have done so much powerful work, and you talk a lot about the importance of building a strong team, and really keeping those goals in front of you. But share a little bit about the journey you all have gone on as an organization.
Rose: It’s been lots of twists and turns. I mean, the vision has always been the same: Build a culture of life. And the mission is to end abortion. And to build that culture of life as part of ending abortion. But to do so, the tactics have changed, and they’ll continue to evolve and shift, and the strategies will continue to evolve. Because there’s no one silver bullet. We’re talking about changing hearts and minds. We really want to change culture, and there’s lots of ways to do that, and you have to respond in different ways.
So when Live Action first started, we focused on youth education and then we were doing investigative reporting and trying to create these explosive reports that would force political action. And we got the first vote in the House of Representatives at the time to defund Planned Parenthood, which had been unprecedented.
So our work helped inspire that, and that was a bipartisan vote. So you got Democrats, Independents, and Republicans all on the same page to defund the biggest abortion chain. So it was really exciting, but then the politics just seem so immovable. I mean, there were always more Republicans who were still afraid. They didn’t want to push the envelope. Or there are Democrats who were just so pro-abortion, they would do anything. And so I realized more and more, we have to change culture. We have to change voters. We have to change families and individuals.
And so Live Action today is most focused—we do have political outreach, we do investigative reporting, but we are most focused on campaigns designed to educate people about abortion, human dignity, motherhood, and fatherhood. And we can actually look at people’s hearts and minds changing.
I mean, people in the middle, on the left who are like: “Wait a minute, you’re right. Killing a human being is not [right] … I didn’t see it this way, but this is a human life. We should fight for them. They deserve protection too.” So that’s our main focus, [to change] hearts and minds, particularly of young people. And we’re every day doing different things, but we’re reaching about 10 to 15 million people weekly right now with those pro-life messages.
We can track how it’s affecting people’s opinions and feelings on abortion. And the goal is reach everybody to the point where everybody’s pro-life. It’s a no-brainer to reject abortion.
Allen: So under the Biden administration, how are you all moving forward and continuing to promote that pro-life message, when Congress is on the left side of the aisle? And honestly, so is the president.
Rose: Yeah. I mean, the politics are so bad right now, and they were challenging [for] different reasons even under President Trump. I mean, he did some very pro-life things for which I’m really grateful, but there are a lot of things that weren’t done, which are really disappointing. And so it’s this yo-yoing of politics; one president comes in and reinstates the Mexico City policy, which prevents money from going internationally from the U.S. for abortion. So Trump did that. And then Biden comes in and reverses it. Bush came in and instated it, President George Bush, and then Obama came in and reversed it.
So there’s this yo-yoing. And until, I think, the deep cultural change happens, we can’t really fully abolish abortion. We need both. And so this is actually a really good season for the pro-life movement. It’s actually unprecedented what’s happening in our movement right now. Because, I think, of hearts and minds changing, we’re seeing unprecedented work at the state level to save lives politically. So there have been hundreds of pro-life laws, more than ever before, that have been introduced and passed in just the last two years. It’s unprecedented.
We’re seeing more and more people identify as pro-life and want abortion restrictions. We’re seeing some unprecedented campaigns where young people and activists are getting involved in different pro-life efforts. The pregnancy center movement is strong as ever, thousands of centers who are banding together. New technologies, like abortion pill reversal, to actually help women reverse abortion procedures midway for some of them.
So there’s some really phenomenal things happening. And it’s this quiet revolution. It’s not getting the federal headlines, the national headlines. Occasionally it does, but not as dominantly as other issues, but it’s a revolution. And I think the house of cards that the Democrats have built, unfortunately, on the abortion industry is going to topple. … Joe Biden’s abortion policies are not popular even with his own constituents. And the more we expose that, the more it’s going to become untenable for them.
The last thing I’ll say, besides the cultural shifts happening and the yo-yo, or the reaction, to the extremism of the left and Democrats on this, is the Supreme Court. I mean, the reason they’re talking about packing the court … Biden recently announced a new commission to study court-packing. Fill the Supreme Court up with a bunch of leftists, right? So it will never have any kind of constitutional votes again.
Why are they doing that now? They didn’t do that under Obama. They’re doing that now because there are enough justices on the court who have enough of an understanding of the right to life constitutionally that they may undo the work of Roe v. Wade. And it’s about abortion. It is about abortion, this court-packing effort by the left right now. And so I’m very hopeful that, provided we can prevent that from happening, the court-packing, we can see the undoing of Roe v. Wade in the short coming years.
Allen: So you believe that that is a possibility in our lifetime.
Rose: Absolutely. Not just our lifetime, but our grandparents’ lifetime. I mean, I think it’s coming. It could be coming very soon.
Allen: Lila, that’s exciting to hear you say. Really, really encouraging. Well, in the book you talk about all of the congressional side in these battles that we’re seeing at the state level. There’s just, there’s so much, and I’m sure at moments it can maybe feel a little bit overwhelming. In your journey, have there been times when you’ve thought, “Whoa, this is too big. I don’t know if I can do this.” And in those moments, what has kept you going? What’s kept you moving forward?
Rose: Well, I talked about this in my book, “Fighting for Life,” because I think anybody who’s involved in change and then change starts happening, and it’s good, and bad, and complicated, and there’s so much going on, and it can feel easy to be overwhelmed. And I think we have to remember, we are not in control of it all. We are only in control of what we can do today. And there’s a tremendous freedom in that. …
I mean, I’m Christian, I’m Catholic, and that’s a big part of my message for those … You don’t have to be a person of faith to benefit from the book. But that’s part of, I think, what’s been essential for me. And I share a chapter called “Trust God,” where I would show up at my office, just feeling anxious, just like, “There’s children dying, and there’s so much stuff, and decisions, and conflict.”
And I was like, “What can I do?” And I just was like, “OK, you can only do what you can do today. And ultimately, this is not your battle. You’re fighting this battle because you love God, and you love him and other people, and you’re trying to become a better person yourself. You’ve got lots of issues yourself. And you know that by serving others, you become better.”
And so you’ve got to just trust God. I mean, it’s an act of the will, even if you don’t feel it. And that, I think, is key to persevering, even when we feel like the weight of the world is on our shoulders.
Allen: So for those who read the book and who have a big dream, who have something that they feel called to, but feel very overwhelmed by it: What is your advice to them? And what do you hope that they take from the book as encouragement?
Rose: Well, first of all, I think it is so good when you feel that burning in your heart. That dream, that calling, hold onto that, dive into that, let your heart just ache for that. That is the first step. Don’t numb yourself. Don’t anesthetize yourself, let yourself burn for the people you want to fight for, the thing that you believe is just, and true, and beautiful.
And I would also say: The whole book, it’s three parts. Part one is getting started, just getting off your … out of your ruts. Part two is overcoming, that persevering, the tools route. And then part three is the bigger picture, coming home to wholeness ourselves. And one of the keys in getting started is, just start. It’s literally pick up the phone, read a book. Do one thing today, write down in your journal or on your calendar each day, this is what I’m doing for this dream, for this cause, for this calling.
You will discover by little actions the bigger picture. Nothing happens overnight. No breakthrough moment happens in one day’s work. I mean, it’s usually weeks and months and even years quietly beforehand. You’re seeing my highlight reel, in a way, when we’re talking about this interview we’re doing, but if you read the book, you’ll see this wasn’t a bunch of highlights. There was so many lonely moments.
Mistakes? I made so many embarrassing mistakes. I share some of those stories in the book for your entertainment. So just remember that. And one thing at a time, one day at a time. You can do this, you were born for this. And the beautiful thing is this. By stepping out and doing that one thing a day, and just trying again each day, even after we make mistakes, or we get distracted, or whatever, you are becoming who you are meant to be. That helps you grow and become stronger, more loving, better as a human being. And that’s the power of a calling. To change us just like we’re trying to help others, and change the world around us.
Allen: Yeah, such a good perspective. Well, one of the questions that we love to ask everyone who comes on this show is—we get so many different answers to this—but do you consider yourself a feminist? Yes or no? Why or why not? Everyone interprets that word very, very differently, but it’s always fun to hear what people have to say.
Rose: Yes. I thought you were going to say, do you consider yourself a problematic woman?
Allen: Well, that too.
Rose: Absolutely. In the best of ways. So I would absolutely say, in the true sense of feminism, as it was intended by the early feminists, I am a feminist. I believe in equal treatment under the law, of men and women as equal in dignity. As far as modern feminists, I am so in direct rejection of what modern feminism has become, I’m like the anti-feminist in that sense, which is just so silly. They have hijacked a good thing, and it wasn’t just them.
Where did these women come from that are all about sexual libertinism, and kill your children, and motherhood is not beautiful? And I mean, it’s like where did this come from? It’s so anti-woman. So I do not relate, or identify, or support any of that. I’m against it, but I don’t think that’s true feminism. And if that’s what’s understood to be feminism today, that’s so sad. I mean, unfortunately I guess it is. It is. And so we’ve got to fight against it.
Allen: Wow. Great answer.
Rose: I’m pro-human.
Allen: Yes. Love it. Well, please look up the book, buy a copy on Amazon.
Rose: I’ve got my copy here.
Allen: It really is such a great read. And Lila, if individuals want to get more involved with Live Action, how can they do that?
Rose: Thank you. LiveAction.org is our website, and the book is available, like you said, anywhere you buy your books. We’re also all over social media. So Live Action’s all over, @LilaGraceRose or @lilaroseofficial on Twitter or Instagram. We’re all over social. So please connect with us.
If you’re lonely and you’re looking for other problematic women to connect with, anti- but authentic feminists to connect with, Live Action has some great crew. So check us out online and start connecting, and I hope to be connected in the future to you guys.
Allen: Lila, thank you so much for your time today. We really appreciate your coming on.
Rose: Thanks for having me on.
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