Alex Clark, the host of the The Spillover podcast and creator of POPlitics, spoke exclusively with Live Action president and founder Lila Rose about being pro-life in a pro-abortion, celebrity-focused culture.
Becoming pro-life
Growing up as a conservative Christian, Clark knew abortion was wrong, but didn’t know the details about abortion until she heard Allie Beth Stuckey break down how each abortion procedure is carried out.
“I was just sobbing in my car listening to that, and I was like, there’s no defense of this. There’s no argument I’ve ever heard that could excuse such barbaric, horrific acts being put upon an innocent human being,” she explained.
Once you understand abortion, it’s easy to discuss the pro-life arguments, she said. From then on, she became “obsessed” with learning about abortion and educating herself on pro-life apologetics.
Coming out as pro-life on reality TV
While on a dating reality TV show called “Coupled,” one of Clark’s potential suitors asked her if she, as a conservative, was “against a woman’s right to choose.” Clark knew at that moment that she could lie or that she could tell the truth — that she is pro-life — and risk becoming “the most hated woman in America.” She decided to tell the truth, and when the show aired, most of the messages she received were actually supportive of her. She even received messages from individuals who considered themselves to be pro-choice, but respected her honesty in that moment, especially since her date was not so respectful.
“And I was shocked,” she told Rose. “Because what I was seeing was either ‘I agree with you. I’ve never seen anyone on a mainstream dating show say that they were pro-life’ or it was, ‘I am pro-choice and I disagree with you but that was so cool that in the moment, you owned it’…”
That’s when Clark realized that as a young woman who loves pop culture, she had the opportunity to show that pro-lifers aren’t just “the stereotype of this old white guy.”
Celebrities and Planned Parenthood
Clark noted that social media has elevated the idea that it’s normal to be pro-abortion. Celebrities post about their support for abortion on their social media accounts and give glimpses into their lives that just a few years ago would not have been possible. Their influence on American culture has only grown due to social media, and unfortunately, a lot of them have used their celebrity status to promote abortion, which they never portray as what it actually is: the direct, intentional killing of a human being prior to birth.
“It all really comes down to how little people know about what abortion is and also, what the pro-life movement’s goal is, what our intentions are, what we do for women in crisis pregnancies. I think if we were able to get that message out, a lot of these celebrities would probably be more on the fence or at least willing to listen to a pro-life point of view,” she said. “But what people don’t understand is that Planned Parenthood is so tethered to Hollywood. They have an entire department that is dedicated to scriptwriting, and going through any scene that’s in a television show or a movie that has to do with abortion and making sure that it is very positively twisted in a pro-choice direction. Pro-lifers don’t have that.”
Sharing pro-life efforts
Clark uses her social media and her podcasts to share positive, pro-life information and to educate people on abortion. “A lot of women that watch my show, they’re not always coming to me already being pro-life, so when I have interviewed some amazing women in the pro-life movement on The Spillover, sometimes their stories really transform their minds. And it’s because they’ve never heard this stuff before. Some of these women, even though they vote conservative, they had no idea that … pregnancy resource centers are outnumbering places like Planned Parenthood,” said Clark.
She said that when women learn about how the pro-life movement actually helps women with material goods like cribs and carseats as well as resources such as child care, housing and jobs, they realize that pro-lifers do care about women and their babies even after birth. Raising awareness of those resources is vital to saving lives from abortion.
Post-Roe courage
Clark believes that now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned, the first step is for pro-lifers to come out as being pro-life. Though there can be a lot of fear associated with that, she believes now is the time to build up the courage and speak out.
“The first step as pro-lifers that we need to do is get in there and just say you’re pro-life. Just say that because so many of us are so scared and we’re weighing that cost of who’s going to hate me, what friends of mine am I going to lose. And I know that that is really scary,” she said. “But you don’t have to have the answer to every question either. You don’t have to be like this expert debater activist. All you have to do is say that you are and if they have a question that you don’t know the answer to, just say I want to look that up and then go to Live Action, go to some of these — there are pro-life organizations that have every single hard question that you would get asked as a pro-lifer from the pro-choice side and how to answer it. And I do that all the time.”
She advised pro-lifers to educate themselves on pro-life apologetics by using Live Action resources (one great series to check out is Live Action’s Pro-Life Replies), and bring up abortion in conversations through pop culture. She also offered tips to help pro-lifers change the culture.
Clark also believes that pro-lifers must be ready to help women by educating themselves both on how to answer a woman’s questions about abortion and how to help her secure resources and assistance when facing an unplanned pregnancy.
And, she reiterated, be willing to speak out. Whether speaking in person or sharing pro-life posts on social media, pro-lifers should not be afraid to share that they are pro-life and why they are pro-life.
“Be really thoughtful with your responses,” she said, “and just be willing to make those posts.”
