Lila Rose, founder and president of Live Action, claimed victory in a Yale University debate on abortion this week — much to the surprise of the event’s organizer. The pro-life advocate squared off against Frances Kissling, president of Catholics for Choice, and delivered a moving defense of the unborn’s right to life.
Shortly after the debate, Rose took to Twitter: “We won. The room voted for the pro-life side. The Yale organizer was shocked.” Her announcement reflected what many in the audience felt — that she had not only made an argument, but won the audience’s hearts.
Rose didn’t pull punches. She exposed the euphemisms pro-abortion advocates use to mask hard truths. She recounted the story of a young mother who disposed of a dead newborn baby boy “like trash,” arguing this shows how language shapes what people accept. She insisted that calling the unborn a “pregnancy loss” instead of a baby denies their humanity.
She laid out a strong moral case: abortion procedures are brutal at all stages — suction methods, starvation via medication, needles piercing into the heart or brain in later stage terminations. She argued that drawing lines at various points before birth is arbitrary and dehumanizing, insisting that science supports life beginning at fertilization and that human worth does not depend on age or size.
In response, Kissling acknowledged that unborn children have value but maintained a mother’s concerns can sometimes outweigh those rights. She suggested that only once the baby is born does full legal protection apply. Rose challenged that view vigorously. She reminded the audience that the 14th Amendment promises equal protection for every person, including unborn children. Rose closed with an appeal not just to policy, but to love and human dignity — “choose love, not violence.”