March 31, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) – For nearly a decade, the powerhouse pro-life organization Live Action has reported on what founder Lila Rose calls “the abusive operations” of Planned Parenthood. While everyone on the pro-life side of the culture wars is grateful for the revelations Live Action's investigations have brought to light – catching abortionists in everything from covering up sexual trafficking to condoning sex-selective abortion – some religious critics say it is wrong for reporters to lie, even to abortionists.
In a recent interview with LifeSiteNews, Rose described Live Action's approach to undercover investigations, and responded to critics who say “deception” should not be part of the pro-life movement.
Close to home — her first investigation
“Undercover investigations take a lot of work,” Lila Rose told LifeSiteNews. “I did my first investigation at the age of 18 as a student at UCLA – but I had been researching the abortion industry for five years at that point.”
Rose noted that her first investigation wasn't done lightly. “At UCLA, I didn't just research abortion. I wanted to discover why there were so few pregnant undergraduates on campus – even while the health center on campus claimed to process over 1,500 pregnancy tests in one year,” she said.
“I looked at what the UCLA Health Center claimed it was offering, and wanted to determine what women were being told after getting pregnancy evaluations – I highly doubted they were being offered all the 'choices,' as the university claimed.”
In what would become her modus operandi for her undercover exposés, Rose said, “I made sure that I knew as much as possible before I went undercover.”
What Rose found would become standard during her investigations of the abortion industry: the nurse told her that “UCLA doesn't support women who are pregnant” and gave her contact information for two area abortionists.
Be prepared — emotionally, spiritually, and physically
Rose stressed that full-scale preparation is important for undercover investigators. She said, when it comes to covert intelligence, the greatest cost is not financial but mental and emotional.
“The physical resources may be minimal – recorders can be bought for $100 or less – but the time and knowledge resources are far more intensive,” Rose said. “You have to take the time to study and understand the focus of your investigation – in our case, often abortion facilities – and then apply the best methodology.”
“When we train our investigators, it's very thorough,” she said.
Part of that is preparing pro-life, often Christian women, to set foot inside an abortion facility.
“Sometimes, these [investigators] are pregnant themselves – and here they are, entering the very dark places that are abortion facilities,” Lila revealed. “They have to also be ready for how this may mentally and emotionally affect them.”
Rose's investigations would leave almost anyone affected. In addition to the horror of abortion, Live Action has found cover-ups of statutory rape, abuse of trafficked sex slaves, and support for sex-selective abortions – all of it done by an organization that receives hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds every year.
“Deception” as a tool in investigations
Despite the benefits its investigations have provided the pro-life movement, Lila Rose and Live Action have faced their share of criticism.
Often, Live Action's opponents are the ones condemning the investigations – accusing them of doctoring the footage, for example. Live Action has since provided uncut, unedited footage of its investigations along with a shorter version for popular consumption.
But sometimes, surprisingly, it is the organization's allies that disparage their tactics. Many pro-life activists, especially some Roman Catholics, believe that deception should not be part of the pro-life movement, and that undercover investigations violate Catholic Church teachings.
Rose says such scrupulous critics are misguided.
“My faith is the most important thing to me, and of course this includes the [Catholic] Church's moral teachings, which were given to us as the truth so we can guide our actions,” she said.
“But the [Catholic] Church has never spoken to specifically condemn undercover operations, whether done by the military, by government authorities, or journalists,” she said.
Rose said undercover investigations are helpful, perhaps necessary, “in a nation burdened by hidden injustices, which are sometimes state-sponsored. Planned Parenthood facilities are violating the most basic tenets of a free society – life and the respect for human dignity – and our investigations work to expose these injustices so society can reject them.”
“Investigators find information that would otherwise be unavailable for the public, which is especially critical in light of the hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars Planned Parenthood receives each year.”
Rose says working at an abortion facility means that a person does not have the right to the truth, just as abortion facility workers often manipulate their clients.
“If you walk into an abortion facility, you should not expect that the facility will tell you the truth,” she said. “You are in a zone of grave human rights violations, the killing of children and the manipulation of women in desperate situations.”
“And if you are a worker at an abortion facility, you should expect to be investigated,” Rose told LifeSiteNews.
Rose vowed that she and Live Action will continue to engage in such investigations, as long as she can find people willing to undergo the thorough preparation that supports their campaign. “A lot of hard work goes into these investigations,” Rose said.
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“It's not just walking into a clinic and trying to get a quote or two,” she said. “This is an emotionally, mentally, and spiritually difficult field of work. I am very thankful for the amazing people I work with, and the courage, professionalism, and deep understanding they bring to their work.”
