Lila Rose debates abortion and other pro-life issues at UC Berkeley

Live Action founder and president Lila Rose headed to UC Berkeley last week for a campus discussion and debate about abortion and other pro-life issues.

The event was an open-forum, giving audience members the chance to interact with Rose and leading to a wide-ranging discussion about a number of life-related topics.

Key Takeaways:

• One central theme Rose debated with several audience members was personhood and the beginning of human life, with one speaker arguing that an embryo is not a person and another saying that a fetus in the womb of a human mother is not human.

• Rose maintained that "if you're a human life, you're a person," noting that abortion is the taking of a human life and is therefore always wrong.

• She also discussed the racist and eugenic history of Planned Parenthood, noting that the organization has killed a vast number of human lives and needs to be defunded.

• Other topics of conversation included legal consequences for abortion, contraception, end-of-life issues, religion, politics, and how to better support mothers and families.

The Details:

Lila Rose Challenges Students on Abortion at UC Berkeley

Rose began with the position, "If you're a human life, you're a person." She went on to posit that abortion is destroying the life of an innocent human, and is therefore always wrong.

One speaker disagreed with this definition, arguing that 'personhood' requires consciousness, capacity for thought, or the ability to feel pain. Therefore, he said, the preborn child — especially an embryo in the earliest stages of development — is not a person. However, he struggled to define the moment at which he believes personhood does begin.

Rose pointed out the flaws in this thinking because it is based on arbitrary lines and could also exclude vulnerable born people. Instead, she said, human life at every stage deserves full protection.

“If your position is that it’s okay to kill non-person humans, but you can’t define a person, don’t you think that’s a little bit dangerous?” Rose asked.

Later, another audience member tried to argue that a fetus is not a human, suggesting instead that it is similar to sperm. Rose countered this idea, saying that "the fetus is a human life… genetically distinct from his or her mother and father." She pointed out that the fetus “just need[s] time and nourishment to grow, be born, and become a newborn.”

Zoom In:

Another audience member asked Rose to talk about the origins of Planned Parenthood. Rose explained that the organization grew from Margaret Sanger's support for eugenics and population control policies in the early twentieth century, and the racist and eugenic undertones still permeate the organization today.

Rose argued for a federal defunding of Planned Parenthood, calling it "a criminal organization that's killing hundreds of thousands of lives." In just the most recently reported year (2024-25) , Planned Parenthood killed at least 434,450 preborn human lives by abortion.

The Bottom Line:

The wide-ranging debate also touched on topics of legal consequences for abortion, contraception, end-of-life issues, religion, politics, and how to better support mothers and families.

Rose ended by suggesting a combination of cultural, political, and societal approaches to supporting life, arguing for the need for increased resources for mothers, adoption services, and pregnancy support programs. The goal, she said, is to change hearts and minds while ensuring mothers are not afraid to choose life.