Lila Rose on 2024 task for pro-life movement, podcast debut on EWTN

During the 2024 Napa Institute Summer Conference, Lila Rose spoke with EWTN News President Montse Alvarado about the task currently before the pro-life movement. / Credit: EWTN News/Screenshot

CNA Staff, Aug 10, 2024 / 10:00 am (CNA).

On the occasion of her podcast joining the EWTN programming lineup, human rights activist and Live Action President Lila Rose discussed the task currently before America’s pro-life movement as well as the significance of her lifestyle podcast’s placement on the global Catholic network.

“It is truly a dream come true and an answer to prayer to get to partner with EWTN in the spirit of Mother Angelica, who is one of my dearest heroes,” Rose said upon announcing the EWTN debut of “The Lila Rose Podcast” during the 2024 Napa Institute Summer Conference.

“Seeing EWTN take the vision of Mother Angelica, her innovation, her spirit, her courageous vision to go out into culture and talk to anyone, go anywhere and share the Gospel, and now to do that within the new digital landscape, and to get to be a part of it … is just a dream come true for me,” she continued. 

Speaking of her podcast, Rose said the vision of her show is to reach “young people, especially those in transition, young women, young families.” 

“How do we build healthy relationships? How do we build strong marriages? How do we date for marriage? How do we be healthy physically, emotionally, spiritually?” Rose said of some of the topics she engages with.

“My show is a space to have those conversations, discover, learn together and have fun along the way,” she added.

As a result of the collaboration, “The Lila Rose Podcast” now premieres on EWTN On Demand exclusively for 24 hours and is subsequently distributed on multiple additional platforms, including YouTube, Spotify, and other podcast apps.

Rose on the pro-life fight in 2024 

During the 2024 Napa Institute Summer Conference, Rose spoke with EWTN News President Montse Alvarado on “EWTN Pro-Life Weekly” about the task currently before the pro-life movement.

When asked about the post-Roe panorama, Rose said that “in a way, we’re just getting started.” 

“The overturning of Roe v. Wade was a tremendous victory, a tremendous milestone for the movement,” she said. “But in many ways, it was the beginning of a new war, a fight that we knew was always coming, which was: We have to change culture.” 

Rose highlighted the importance of changing hearts and minds, which is the goal of her organization, Live Action.

“Many people don’t even know what abortion really is. They don’t know the sacredness of their own life or of other lives. They don’t know all the resources that exist for women who might become pregnant and be struggling,” she explained. “So our job is to educate and help people know the truth and then be that point of hard truth, but also encouragement and inspiration, that there is a better path here for women and for our culture — and that path is life.”

Responding to Republican backsliders

Rose noted that in the wake of Roe’s overturn, “the Republican Party seems to be softening on life,” a move she called “very disappointing because the reality is this is the time to fight more than we ever have for life.”

“I’m hoping that whatever fear that is gripping a lot of politicians right now, as we double down on our educational work, our campaigning, we can reinvigorate not just culture but also politics down the line,” she added.

When asked how the pro-life movement should respond to the Republican National Committee softening its stance on life, Rose said: “We need to be unafraid.” 

“Listen, our job as voters is not to give undying loyalty without any demands to one party or another. That’s tribalism. Our job is to vote our conscience. Our job is to speak the truth even when it’s popular and unpopular,” she said. 

Rose noted that the Trump-Vance ticket is in support of abortion pills, which are used for most abortions in the U.S.

“It’s our job to call that out,” she said. “That doesn’t mean we’re going to go vote for the Democrats’ side if you’re pro-life, because they’re even more pro-abortion all the way until birth — but we can’t pretend like this is okay.”

When asked about the abortion pill versus surgical abortion, Rose said the abortion pills are “indistinguishable, morally speaking, from the surgical abortion procedure.” 

“I think we’re buying into the abortion industry’s lies to pretend like there’s a distinction when there’s not a distinction,” she said. “One is a chemical pill that basically kills the baby via starvation and a forced miscarriage. The other one is a technical procedure that rips the baby into pieces. They’re both horrific. They both kill the same baby.”

She also noted that the abortion pill “is incredibly traumatic” for women. 

When asked about Vice President Kamala Harris, Rose noted that she is the first presidential candidate in the country’s history “to have toured an abortion clinic as part of her campaign.” 

“It’s extraordinary how pro-abortion Kamala Harris is, and it would be devastating, if she became the president, for the preborn and the cause for the preborn.”

When asked if there is such a thing as feminism without abortion, Rose said: “Of course.”

“A feminism that rejects the core of what it means to be feminine, woman, motherhood, is an empty and broken feminism,” she noted.