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 1 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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How this classical Catholic school welcomes children with Down syndrome

March 21, 2019 CNA Daily News 1

Louisville, Ky., Mar 21, 2019 / 10:22 am (CNA).- Students with Down syndrome study Latin and logic alongside their classmates at Immaculata Classical Academy, a Catholic school in Louisville, Ky., that integrates students with special needs into each of their pre-K through 12 classrooms.

The school emphasizes “education of the heart,” along with an educational philosophy tailored to the abilities of each student. About 15 percent of students at Immaculata have special needs.

“When you look at these students with Down syndrome in a classical setting, it is truly what a classical education is all about — what it truly means to be human,” the school’s founder, Michael Michalak, told CNA.

“You can’t learn compassion in a book,” Michalak explained.  He said the students at Immaculata are gaining “the ability to give of yourself to help others” through mutual mentoring constantly taking place in the classrooms.  

Michalek founded the academy along with his wife, Penny, in 2010. The couple saw a need for a Catholic school in which students like their daughter, Elena, who has Down syndrome, would not be segregated from her siblings. They wanted to keep their children together without compromising educational quality or spiritual formation.

“A classical education is, I think, the best education for a child with special needs because it is an education in everything that is beautiful, true, and good. It is perfect for these children,” Penny told CNA.

The school’s course schedule is configured so that students can move up or down grade levels by subject at each class hour, according to individual needs. “A second-grader might go to third grade math class and a child with Down syndrome in second grade might go over to first grade or might stay in second grade,” Michael Michalak explained. “Nobody is looking around and saying, ‘Oh, they are going to special classroom.’ They are just going where they need to be.”

“In the midst of all of this we are not leaving students behind,” Penny added. “We keep our high academic standards while integrating students with special needs.”

Since its founding, the independent Catholic school has grown to a student body of 160. Other Catholic schools across the country have begun looking to Immaculata as a model, the Michalaks say.

“Whenever anyone visits our school, they always say, ‘Oh my goodness the joy of this place!’” Penny told CNA.

The couple attributes the school’s sense of joy to the Holy Spirit and “the joy of belonging.”

“Inclusion is more of a buzzword these days, but it is true that we all want to belong and we all want to be loved,” said Michael Michalek.

“Prayer is the air that we breathe. We start the day with prayer. Every class starts with a prayer and ends in a prayer,” said Penny, who entrusted the school to our Our Lady at the school’s founding with St. Maximilian Kolbe as its patron.

“Our whole philosophy is to teach every child as if we were teaching the Christ child, so that is how we handle each and every student,” Penny continued.

A developing religious community, the Sisters of the Fiat, also teach at Immaculata. The sisters take an additional vow to serve those with with special needs, along with the traditional vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.

The school’s founders say they are aware of their unique witness and role in a world where many children with Down syndrome are aborted. The estimated termination rate for children prenatally diagnosed with Down syndrome in the United States is 67 percent; 77 percent in France; and Denmark, 98 percent, according to CBS News.

At the annual March for Life in Washington, DC, students from Immaculata Classical Academy hold signs that read, “Abortion is not the cure for Down syndrome.” The students are united in mission as “a pro-life school” and pray together for an end to abortion for their brothers and sisters with Down syndrome around the world, Michalak said.

The Michalaks have also adopted three children with Down syndrome.

Michael sees the founding of a school like Immaculata as the natural Catholic response at a moment in history when children with Down syndrome are especially at risk.

“Look at what the Catholic Church has done throughout history: We see orphans; we build orphanages. We see sick people; we build hospitals. It is in this particular time and place that we saw the need to take the lead on this and to start a school that incorporates the whole family.”

His wife adds, “When you are doing something that you feel called by God to do, it is a vocation, it is a mission, it is a calling…how can you not be full of joy when you know that this is the will of God. It is very rewarding.”

 

This article was originally published on CNA Feb. 2, 2018.

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