Overcoming prior hesitation, Catholic Live Action President Lila Rose votes for Trump

Tyler Arnold   By Tyler Arnold for CNA

November 5, 2024 Catholic News Agency News Briefs 0 Print

 

Lila Rose, founder of Live Action. / Credit: Live Action

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 5, 2024 / 12:45 pm (CNA).

In the run-up to the 2024 U.S. presidential election, influential pro-life activist and Live Action President Lila Rose announced her decision to support former president Donald Trump, despite her earlier hesitation about his candidacy.

“I will be voting for Donald Trump,” Rose, who is Catholic, said in a Nov. 2 post on X, just three days before the Nov. 5 election.

The last-minute decision to support Trump comes just two months after Rose told Politico that she “would not vote for [Vice President Kamala] Harris or Trump” if the election were held that day.

However, since that comment, Rose revealed that she “had the opportunity to meet privately with President Trump [and] he was generous with his time, and we spoke for two hours on my disagreements with him on abortion.”

“Some progress was made: When enough pro-life allies expressed outrage and threatened to withhold their vote, Trump reversed his position on Amendment 4, which would legalize abortion through all nine months in his home state of Florida, and expressed his opposition to it,” Rose wrote.

Rose: Harris running ‘most pro-abortion campaign’ ever

Rose said in her statement that “Kamala Harris’ policies and record on abortion are objectively worse than Trump’s,” which contributed to her ultimate decision to support the former president.

“Harris’ campaign is the most pro-abortion campaign in American history,” Rose said. “She not only stands against the rights of preborn children, but she actively works to thwart the rights of pro-life Americans, including conservatives and Christians, to advocate for those children.”

Harris has vowed to restore the abortion standards of Roe v. Wade, which would prevent states from adopting pro-life laws. She has refused to disavow late-term abortion in the final months of pregnancy and rejected any religious exemptions in federal abortion laws.

In addition, as a United States senator in 2019, Harris introduced the Do No Harm Act, which would have ended religious freedom exemptions for health care rules, including on abortion.

“Harris opposes conscience exceptions for health care professionals, meaning she supports forcing health care professionals and hospitals, including those of faith, to commit abortions or lose their ability to practice medicine,” Rose wrote.

Rose further noted that when Harris was attorney general of California, “she selectively prosecuted pro-life journalists who exposed Planned Parenthood selling baby body parts, a federal crime.”

This comment is in reference to Harris’ role in the raid of pro-life activist David Daleiden’s home after he conducted an undercover investigation of Planned Parenthood, which showed organization officials discussing costs for fetal tissue and body parts. It is illegal to sell fetal tissue and body parts. Harris alleged that Daleiden broke several laws while obtaining the videos but never investigated Planned Parenthood.

Rose further noted that “Harris also used her power as [attorney general] to attempt to force pro-life pregnancy nonprofits in California to post abortion advertisements in their clinics.”

This is in reference to Harris’ support for and enforcement of the the Reproductive FACT Act in California, which forced pro-life pregnancy centers to display notices on where women can obtain abortions. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately ordered California to stop enforcing the law because it compelled speech, in violation of the First Amendment.

“The recurring message in nearly every interview and speech Harris gives centers on her unflinching support for abortion,” Rose said. “If fascism is the alignment of all power to the state, Kamala Harris is a model abortion fascist.”

Rose backs Trump despite some disagreements

Although Rose is voting for Trump, she still expressed some disagreements with the former president on abortion, such as his plan to keep abortion a state-level issue instead of supporting stronger federal rules. She also criticized Trump’s support for taxpayer-funded in vitro fertilization and keeping the abortion pill legal.

“Trump and [JD] Vance may believe these positions are politically more expedient,” Rose said. “But there is no middle ground when it comes to life. Every child, no matter how he or she is conceived, has a right to be given a chance at life.”

Yet, Rose also credits Trump for his appointment of three U.S. Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, which allowed states and the federal government to restrict abortion. In addition, as president, Trump used his executive power to restrict foreign aid funding of abortion, prevent Title X funds from fueling the abortion industry, and protect infants who are born alive after a failed abortion.

Moreover, the former president said in a speech to the Faith and Freedom Coalition in June that, if elected, he would “rapidly review the cases” of pro-life activists and “every political prisoner” who has been jailed under the Biden-Harris administration and get them “back to their families where they belong.”

One pro-life activist who is currently in prison on charges of obstructing access to an abortion clinic, Will Goodman, is also urging pro-life voters to support Trump.

“When I consider the little ones Jesus particularly loved, I realize that I am called to love them too,” Goodman, who is Catholic, wrote. “So in the context of this election, I ask: Which party and which candidates have greater contempt for the smallest and littlest babes? The answer is self-evident: the national Democrat Party and the Harris/Walz ticket for president/vice president. Period.”

In her statement, Rose acknowledged that Trump’s watered-down position on abortion has “discouraged pro-life voters.” She said “there will be many voters who choose the less pro-abortion candidate and vote for Donald Trump over Kamala Harris, but there will also be voters who have been so discouraged by Trump’s positions that they may decide to sit this election out.”

“We must continue our fight to secure the respect for human life in both political parties and across our culture,” Rose said. “The protection of our children cannot be negotiable — America’s future depends on leaders who protect its most vulnerable.”

Trump has also been endorsed by other pro-life organizations, including National Right to Life, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, Priests for Life, Students for Life of America, and Operation Rescue, among others.

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On 50th anniversary of Humanae Vitae, reasons for hope

July 25, 2018 CNA Daily News 0

Detroit, Mich., Jul 25, 2018 / 12:16 pm (CNA).- Fifty years after Pope Paul VI issued Humanae Vitae, the landmark encyclical reaffirming Church teaching against contraception, many Catholics still don’t really understand the document and what it teaches.

“The woeful fact is that pathetically few have ever read Humanae Vitae or ever heard a homily or defense of it,” said Dr. Janet Smith, a professor at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit.

However, she told CNA, “[t]here is encouraging evidence that when they do, they find it persuasive.”

Smith, who is also a consulter to the Pontifical Council on the Family, has written and spoken extensively on the Church’s teaching in Humanae Vitae.

A quarter-century ago, for the 25th anniversary of Humanae Vitae, she released “Why Humanae Vitae Was Right: A Reader” in the hopes of helping people see the wisdom in Catholic teaching.

For the 50th anniversary, Smith is releasing an update of essays, entitled, “Why Humanae Vitae is Still Right.”

“Much has happened in the last 25 years, including the tremendous influence of the Theology of the Body on our understanding Humanae Vitae, and the scientific evidence of the detrimental effects of contraception on women’s health and male/female relationships. While the first volume remains relevant, an update of essays was needed,” she explained.

In Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI warned of serious social consequences that would follow if the widespread use of contraceptives became accepted.

Smith said that 50 years have shown the “prophetic power” of Humanae Vitae to be “abundantly substantiated,” with clear connections between widespread contraceptive use and the rise in unwed pregnancy, abortion, divorce, pornography, same-sex unions and transgenderism.  

“When the baby-making power of sexual intercourse is no longer considered a defining feature of sexual intercourse, virtually all sorts of sexual relationships are permissible, providing, I suppose, that they are consensual,” she said.

One common misunderstanding of Humanae Vitae, Smith said, that “it is based upon an outmoded notion of natural law that gives undue weight to simple biology.”

“The fact is that the literally infinitely greater value of human sexual intercourse is the foundation of the Church’s teaching,” she said, emphasizing that human sexuality has a dual purpose: “the facilitating of a lifelong, faithful committed relationship and the participating in God’s creation of new immortal souls – hence the necessity for human sexual relationships to be rooted in marriage, open to new life.”

Another common misconception, she said, is that Catholics may follow their consciences, even against Church teaching, whereas the Church actually says that “freedom to follow one’s conscience is based on the requirement that individuals form their consciences in accord with Church teaching.”

“I believe that few faithful Catholics [who] prayerfully read Humanae Vitae and seek out further instruction should doubts arise would not find the teaching true to God’s plan for sexuality.”

Most Catholics today fail to follow Humanae Vitae, Smith acknowledged. But rather than finding this figure discouraging, she sees hope in a study finding that Church teaching on sexuality is accepted by 37 percent of Catholic women between the ages of 18 and 34 who attend Mass weekly and go to Confession at least once a year.

“In a Church where the teaching is rarely presented and a culture that mocks the Church’s teaching, such compliance is astonishing,” she said. 

And there are other encouraging signs that the Church is working to better reach people with the message of Humanae Vitae, Smith said, such as recent efforts by the U.S. bishops to teach about the issue and encourage priests to do so as well.   

In addition, she said, diocesan family life offices and young seminarians and priests have the training and desire to teach and promote Natural Family Planning, through which a couple uses a woman’s natural fertile and infertile periods to pursue responsible parenthood. Unlike contraception, this method is accepted by the Church because it cooperates with human fertility rather than trying to stifle it.

Smith also noted marriage preparation programs that address cohabitation and contraception, as well as new teaching materials inspired by Theology of the Body, websites with resources and testimonies that are widely accessible, and an increase in faithful Catholic colleges and universities.

“My count indicates there are about 40 conferences being held that feature support of Humanae Vitae in the U.S., not to mention the webinars and likely hundreds of supportive pieces being published in print and online journals and blogs,” she added.

“More of all of this needs to be done, but a tremendous start has been made.”
 
 

 

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