W.WFRUH
EST. 1921
Photo: Owen Markham | Loyolan
The 'You've Got This" wellness initiative hosted its first weekly "Wellness Wednesday" on Oct. 2 to provide relaxation and wellness information for students. The program hosted
vendors selling produce and other goods. Multiple groups on campus are participating in the initiative including SPS, RtWell Personal Training, EMS, the Food Pantry and more.
October 9, 2019
Your Home.
Your Voice.
Your News.
VOLUME 98 I ISSUE 7
Student chef and entrepeneur
Thomas Mulzac caters soul food
from his dorm room.
Page 9
Speaker defends pro-life views at YAF event
Photo: Molly Jean Box | Loyolan
Lila Rose spoke at LMU on Oct. 1. Rose is a pro-life activist, founder of Live Action
and host of the podcast "The Lila Rose Show."
Pro-life activist Lila Rose
calls abortion a "human
rights issue."
Molly Jean Box
Asst. News Editor
@LALoyolan
The Young Americans for Freedom (YAF)
club hosted speaker Lila Rose, a pro-life
activist, in Roski’s Dining Hall on Tuesday,
Oct. 1 . The event, titled “Planned Parenthood
Exposed /’centered around abortion.
“This is the greatest human rights issue
facing our country today,” said Rose in the
introduction of her speech. Following a thank
you to YAF and to LMU for hosting her.
Rose went into arguments against abortion.
Rose said that when she was 18, she
went undercover as an underage sexual
assault victim to Planned Parenthood to see
how they would react. Since then, she has
amassed a large following as founder and
president of Live Action, a media outlet
that reports on stories surrounding abortion
that “the mainstream media often refuses to
cover,” according to their website.
During her speech, Rose addressed some
of the opposing views in favor of abortion —
like in cases of rape that lead to pregnancy.
Rose responded to this argument asking
whether “the child deserve[s] the death
penalty for the crimes of their father.”
Rose stated that she agrees with the pro-
choice argument of "my body my choice" to
a certain extent.
“This is my body and I can make decisions
about my body, but I can’t use my body to
harm someone else’s body,” said Rose.
According to the Live Action website,
in addition to abortion. Rose’s activism
centers around “inspiring a culture that
respects all human life.” When asked if
she considered her activism feminist work.
Rose answered that by modern feminist
standards, it is not. She stated that the
original feminists were “almost all pro¬
life,” and that they argued that abortion is
violence against women and children.
“Today’s feminism is in some ways totally
detached from original feminism because it’s
arguing for the very thing that some of the
original feminists fought against. It's arguing
for abortion as somehow empowerment,
it’s arguing for the killing of our children,”
said Rose. “I’m really disgusted by modem
feminism and what it's done to distort the
original feminist vision.”
The audience consisted of students on
both sides of the issue. Mikaela Adams, a
freshman management major, said that she
attended because every living being has a
dignity of life that needs to be upheld.
“Imagine if you were on the other end
of something horrible, like abortion,” said
Adams. “It’s really hard to stand up for
people who don’t have a voice.”
After Rose concluded her talk, she opened
the floor to questions from the audience. The
pro-life speaker encouraged the pro-choice
members of the audience to come forward
and engage in dialogue.
One such member of the audience, Brion
Dennis, a sophomore finance major, took the
floor to ask Rose how the two sides, both pro¬
life and pro-choice, were to find common
ground when both were misrepresenting
facts to support their own argument.
Rose stated that the two could attempt
to find common ground right then. She
began by asking Dennis if they could agree
that all humans deserve human rights, to
which Dennis agreed. As the conversation
continued, Dennis argued that the embryo
in the womb, though it would eventually
become human, was not yet human and
instead a “clump of cells.”
“Are they human cells? Do they have
human parents? So you’re saying that in the
womb there is a clump of cells with human
parents but they are not human,” said Rose.
“So are they cat [cells]?”
Dennis stated that the dialogue had
“eventually ... turned into this back and forth
of her asking me questions that ... I can’t
answer because I am not a scientist.”
Rose and Dennis moved on from the
logistics of pregnancy to disputing a quote
Rose had used in her speech from Margaret
Sanger — the birth control activist who
founded Planned Parenthood.
During this discussion, another member
of the audience in the front row turned and
shouted at the pro-choice sophomore.
“A girl who was in the audience decided
to scream at me about a point that I was
correct on about ... how there is a quote from
Margaret Sanger that was misquoted [in
Rose’s speechl and she yelled at me about
how it’s actually real [that] Sanger wanted to
kill black children,” said Dennis.
When asked to verify if the person who
engaged with Rose and Dennis was an LMU
student, YAF offered no comment.
“Even though I had a bad experience with
a person who was there and 1 didn’t feel like
my question was answered, I think it is still
important to go to these events,” said Dennis.
“At the end of the day, we need to try to
understand each other as much as possible.”
