Live Action president and founder Lila Rose spoke to attendees of Live Action’s 2023 Life Gala Awards on Saturday, urging pro-lifers to be courageous as we celebrate one full year without Roe v. Wade.
“There are a lot of successful people in this room tonight. So many of you who have done great things, who have used your God-given talents to start a business, to found a school, to lead a family, to help save friends’ souls,” said Rose. “In all of our lives, we have experienced successes, and of course, we have experienced failures. It does not take a great act of courage to try something new after a failure. When we fail we have less to lose. But, it’s when we have achieved success — when we are in the position of influence — then it is that we have everything to lose.”
The pro-life movement scored a big win when Roe v. Wade was finally overturned in June 2022, nearly 50 years after the Supreme Court forced legalized abortion upon every state. But the end of Roe was only the beginning. There is more work to be done to save lives from abortion. Rose said pro-lifers must overcome the urge to stay quiet. We must silence the voice that tells us, “[D]on’t do anything too controversial, don’t get canceled, just be everyone’s buddy, ride it out.”
But, said Rose, that’s the “easy thing to do.”
“And let me tell you, that is what most members of our country’s elite do. Too many leaders in culture, in politics, and even in faith communities are comfortable getting along and not rocking the boat too hard,” she explained. “It takes true courage — courage — to put what is right above what is easy, above what is personally advantageous. But that, my friends, is what we are called to do in our lives, and it’s what I am personally challenging you to do tonight.”
On D-Day, said Rose, 2,501 American soldiers were killed — one of the bloodiest days in American history. In the United States, every day 2,500 children are killed by abortion. “That fact should shock our conscience to the core,” she said. “[…] courage is needed now more than ever.”
Rose asked pro-lifers to have the courage to act, the courage to lead, and the courage to win.
The Courage to Act
Right now, eight pro-life activists are in prison, facing up to 11 years because they courageously entered a notorious abortion facility in 2020 to save children from a brutal death. A decade earlier, Live Action’s Inhuman investigation revealed that Cesare Santangelo and his Washington-Surgi Clinic in Washington, D.C., were willing to leave abortion survivors to die, saying, “We would not help it.”
That investigation motivated Lauren Handy to enter the facility to rescue babies. Now she and her fellow activists are in prison for that courage to act to save lives.
“I am not here tonight asking you to put your bodies in between the deadly tools of the abortionists and the children he seeks to kill, as the activists have done,” said Rose. “We are not all called to do that. But we are all called to choose courage in our daily lives, in what we choose to support, in what we choose to speak. We are all called to stand up in our own way for the innocent. In whatever way that you can, choose the courage to act.”
The Courage to Lead
After one year in post-Roe America, 11 states now protect preborn children from abortion, said Rose. But the goal is equal protection for all.
“This right to life does not require a new constitutional amendment,” said Rose. “Those protections exist in our constitution at this very moment. Right now, in America, abortion is unconstitutional. Abortion violates our nation’s highest law, it already is illegal! And it must be treated like it.”
The 14th Amendment states, “No state shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” But we have failed to extend that protection to preborn children, said Rose.
Through Live Action’s New North Star campaign, it is leading the way to ensuring that the 14th Amendment is applied correctly, to protect vulnerable humans in the womb.
The Courage to Win
“Having the courage to win means operating with a laser-like focus on what we can do with the limited time and resources we have, to make the greatest impact in defending human life,” said Rose. “We do that through investigative reporting, through reaching millions through media online, through outreach to schools and churches.”
Pro-lifers must not lose track of the goal — to ensure all lives are protected from abortion. Abortion must not remain legal at 20 weeks, 15 weeks, six weeks, or earlier.
“Let’s not allow our weakness to stop us from choosing courage,” said Rose. “We are all weak humans. Our problems — but especially the killing of abortion — cannot be solved by any one of us alone. But together, and through faith in an all-loving and all-powerful God, justice will prevail.”
