Live Action founder and president Lila Rose took on a daunting challenge earlier this month when she appeared on the hugely popular YouTube channel Jubilee to engage in a 25-on-one “debate” with pro-abortion activists. Despite a frequently intense atmosphere, Rose maintained a calm and compassionate demeanor, modeling the way pro-life advocates should engage in conversations about abortion.
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The video is part of Jubilee’s chaotic debate series “Surrounded,” which pits one person against dozens of opponents. According to the rules of the “game,” after prompted with a topic or argument, members of the crowd get a few seconds to run to the center of the room to engage their opponent. The first to touch the chair can engage with the debate subject. The remaining individuals may then raise red flags when they want another person to take the seat – when the majority of flags are up, the process starts again.
Uploaded January 12, the “Surrounded” episode with Rose features the pro-life leader seated in the middle of a room surrounded by twenty-five people who support legal abortion – some of whom have had abortions themselves. The video has accrued nearly 1.5 million views on YouTube so far.
The full video is over an hour and a half in length, but clips of the interactions have been shared by Rose and others across social media.
In one clip, a woman vulnerably shared her own abortion story – eliciting sentiments of sympathy from Rose – and invited the pro-life leader to share her “perception about how I should feel about my abortion.” When Rose responded, the woman attacked her, saying “you’re expecting me to sit here and let you tell me how I’m supposed to feel. You’re trying to scare me.”
In another video, Rose attempted to push her debate partner to define what she meant by referring to an unborn baby as a “clump of cells.” The woman ultimately admitted that she was “being dehumanizing” toward the unborn, but persisted in her defense of abortion nonetheless.
Throughout the often intense debate experience, Rose appeared consistently calm and collected – even as many of her debate opponents attempted to dominate the conversation, make accusations, and evade talking about the reality of abortion and who the unborn are. Her willingness to listen to the concerns and fears of her debate partners, combined with her solid grasp of the facts and her unflinching commitment to the unborn, provided a strong representation of pro-life values to Jubilee’s nearly 10 million subscribers.
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