An escalating confrontation between anti-abortion activists and former President Donald Trump over his new federal abortion policy has online conservatives condemning a longtime anti-abortion activist.
The criticism comes as pro-life activist Lila Rose called out Trump for balking on a federal ban in his big announcement this week.
Now, Trump fans, who are trying to take a calculated approach to a losing issue for Republicans, are flaming her for a post she made in support of George Floyd after he was murdered by a Minneapolis cop.
“Powerful write up on the faith of George Floyd. Rest In Peace and may justice be served,” Lila Rose, the president of Live Action tweeted on May 29, 2020, over a contemporaneous article in Christianity Today about Floyd’s involvement in Houston’s religious community.
“Lila Rose and her ilk are controlled opposition who have been deliberately tanking the pro-life movement post Dobbs. There I said it,” reacted @carbo_al to Rose’s post.
Carbo’s tweet was a reaction to posts Rose recently made responding to Trump.
After Supreme Court Justices Trump appointed overturned Roe v. Wade and sent the decision on abortion back to the states, Republicans have worried that the issue is galvanizing turnout for Democrats and stopping Republican victories at the polls.
So while some GOP politicians like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) continue advocating for a federal abortion ban at 15 weeks, others like Trump have come around to the idea that many voters don’t like more restrictive policy, and think letting states decide what policy is best is the best way to handle the situation.
“We cannot let our Country suffer any further damage by losing Elections on an issue that should always have been decided by the States, and now will be,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Monday, expressing his desire to take the issue “largely out of play.”
That provoked backlash from some evangelicals and anti-abortion activists, including Trump’s former Vice President Mike Pence, who called Trump’s position a “slap in the face to the millions of pro-life Americans who voted for him in 2016 and 2020” in a post on X.
Rose, whose organization Live Action made a name for itself by targeting Planned Parenthood with undercover videos and who has a large social media presence, waded into the debate on Monday with a statement saying that Trump is “not a pro-life candidate.”
“He’s far less pro-abortion than Biden, but he supports killing some preborn children and will even make that his position in an attempt to get pro-abortion votes,” Rose wrote on X, comparing him to former Democratic New York Gov. Mario Cuomo’s “personally pro-life, but politically pro-choice,” position.
“Former President Trump has taken this one step further by refusing to acknowledge the federal government’s role in protecting life and by saying it should be left only to the states, while also saying he is undecided on how he will vote in November’s abortion ballot question in Florida which would allow the killing of children via abortion through all nine months of pregnancy,” Rose wrote.
That statement, and other posts like it defending her position, set off a flurry of tweets from pro-Trump posters accusing Rose of being a lying grifter.
“No bigger fraud than Lila Rose who backs DeSantis, who aborted 84,000 babies in 2023, 77,000 babies in 2020, 79,000 babies in 2021, 3rd highest abortion rates in the U.S. Florida, 210+ babies aborted daily,” posted @GraceSm16250397. “Thanks to Trump 6,000 babies were saved monthly since Roe was overturned.”
“Lila Rose lives in California, where her tax dollars (25k/year?) are used to cover abortion costs for state residents, out of state travelers and even illegal immigrants,” wrote @_johnnymaga. “Lila Rose could move at any time, but she quite literally funds abortion. She should shut her mouth.”
“She’s basically an extremist at this point, not much better than many on the left tbh,” added @endurance831, echoing the claim that being an abortion absolutist with sink Republicans.
The position isn’t wrong. In the wake of the Arizona Supreme Court enacting a draconian ban, prominent Republicans pushed against it.
Particular venom was reserved for Rose’s occasional posts talking about racism or expressing sympathy for Floyd, who the right believes was wrongly mythologised after his death.
In one post where Rose quoted Alveda King, Martin Luther King Jr.’s niece, comparing abortion to racism, Rose tweeted “#BlackLivesMatter, in the womb and out.”
“Is this you @LilaGraceRose you support black lives matter movement,” posted @scott_47trump.
Rose’s posts disappointed some, who wrote that they’d appreciated Live Action’s work in the past but worried that they’d been bamboozled. But others said that she probably wasn’t fully aware of the facts before making her post.
“This is years old, it was likely a hot take before all the facts became known,” tweeted @bot_malware about Rose’s tweet which was sympathetic to George Floyd.
Rose didn’t immediately respond to questions about what her opinion of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter is.
Still other posters thought that it was evidence that the anti-abortion movement needed new leadership, pushing their own misogynistic takes.
“She’s just a woman, can’t take her seriously,” posted @KPMithrandir. “The pro life movement will only be successful when it goes from being led by women to being led by men because the feminism that inspires pro abortion advocates will be defeated.”
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