Live Action's Lila Rose wins Yale debate against former 'Catholics for Choice' president

On Tuesday, September 16, Live Action founder and president Lila Rose was the decided victor in a Yale Political Union debate event with former Catholics for Choice president Frances Kissling. Rose, who had spoken in opposition to the 'Resolution for Choice,' came out ahead in a 60-31 vote.

Key Takeaways:

• A vote was taken at the end of the evening, and Lila Rose was declared by attendees to be the clear winner against Frances Kissling, former Catholics for Choice president and founding president of the National Abortion Federation.

• Kissling argued that preborn children are not as valuable as other humans, while Rose defended their humanity and pointed out the injustices that occur when society dehumanizes certain human beings.

Abortion and Human Rights Debate: Lila Rose & Frances Kissling at Yale University

The Details:

More than 300 participants had registered to attend the debate. Kissling, who was also the founding president of the National Abortion Federation, focused her argument on the false claim that preborn children are not as valuable as other human beings.

In stark contrast, Rose pointed out that preborn children are being denied their humanity as others have been denied in the past.

"History is full of moments when humanity was denied and the consequences were catastrophic," said Rose. "And in every case, the humanity that is denying the rights or the value to the other has more power. They have more strength. They have more ability to dominate."

Rose noted that "The Nazis, called Jews 'Der untermensch' - subhuman" and considered Jewish and Slavic people to be "morally degenerate, uncivilized, subhuman." She stated:

This wasn't just rhetoric. This was a logical prelude to mass genocide. The Nazis had an official policy that Jews, the disabled and others were considered life unworthy of life. And as we know, over six million were exterminated in the Holocaust. Today, ongoing dehumanization exists not only of our unborn here, but of children across the world, including places like Israel and Gaza.

Rose went on to mention the millions of African Americans who were enslaved in the U.S.:

Entire families, men, women, and children were treated as property, not people. The Supreme Court of our of our country, in Dred Scott v Sanford decision of 1857, said that black men and women were, quote, 'So far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.' That judicial lie about their humanity paved the way for brutal oppression.

Frederick Douglass, who escaped slavery, exposed this evil with this piercing clarity. He says, quote, "The slave holder in order to justify himself..." And by the way, his justifications include his economic rights, his his, his ultimately, his convenience, his property in order to justify himself, quote... 'must prove the slave to be a brute. He must deny him intelligence and rationality, and dispose of him as a beast.'

Douglass tells us the soul of the injustice. When you strip a class of people of their humanity, you open the door to every kind of violence.

When asked by an audience member if all human beings have the same value, Kissling simply replied, "No." She later admitted that preborn children do have some value, just apparently not enough in her opinion to afford them their inherent right to life.

Before the vote was taken at the end of the evening, students in attendance stomped their feet to signal agreement with remarks that were made and hissed to signal disagreement.

The Bottom Line:

The debate, which lasted more than two hours, included question and answer sessions as well as speeches by Yale student speakers. Following the debate, Rose shared on X, "Debate just ended. We won. The room voted for the pro-life side. Yale Organizer was shocked. Change is here. Thank you for praying."