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Founded in 2004 in San Jose, CA, Live Action is an American pro-life organization "dedicated to the respect and protection of all human life, including the unborn" . Live Action is best known as the author of a 2008 investigation alleging racist practices at Planned Parenthood. UCLA Student journalist Lila Rose started Live Action as a high school freshman, and it has grown to include chapters in San Jose, CA and Portland, OR and at UCLA and Claremont McKenna College. The group remains youth-directed and primarily focuses on investigating abortion providers and using new media to disseminate its findings. Live Action's media arm, Live Action Films [1], handles media distribution and requests, and the UCLA chapter publishes the pro-life student quarterly The Advocate. Live Action is tax-exempt and has pending non-profit status.

Projects

UCLA Health Center Lila Rose created The Advocate student magazine as a UCLA freshman in 2006, and the Winter 2007 inaugural issue detailed the findings of an investigation of UCLA's Arthur Ashe Student Health Services Center. Rose, posing as a pregnant student, underwent counseling sessions with two student health counselors and documented them encouraging abortion amidst a lack of resources for pregnant and parenting students on campus. "UCLA doesn't support people who are pregnant or make it easier for them necessarily," said counselor Ann Brooks . Serrin Foster, president of Feminists for Life of America, expressed her disappointment with UCLA health services, commenting, "They don't know how to deal with a pregnant student."

Planned Parenthood Statutory Rape Coverup In March 2007, Rose again went undercover with colleague James O'Keefe to investigate two Planned Parenthood clinics in the Los Angeles area. Rose posed as a 15-year old girl impregnated by her 23-year old boyfriend. Rose secretly taped her interactions with Planned Parenthood employees, in which one employee encouraged her to lie about her age in order for the clinic to avoid California's statutory rape mandated reporter laws. The investigation gathered considerable media coverage when The Advocate released the story in May, and gained even wider notice after Planned Parenthood threatened to sue Rose . On May 17, 2007, Rose was interviewed on FOX News's O'Reilly Factor concerning the investigation and lawsuit. [2]

Racism at Planned Parenthood In February 2008, Live Action released audio recordings of phone calls made to Planned Parenthood Development Departments during the summer of 2007. The caller, again O'Keefe, posed as a racist donor offering to donate money to pay for the abortions of African-American women, intending to lower the number of people in the African-American community. In Idaho, the caller exclaimed, "The less black kids out there the better," while Planned Parenthood of Idaho Vice President of Development and Marketing Autumn Kersey accepted the offer, remarking, "Understandable, understandable. ... Excuse my hesitation, this is the first time I've had a donor call and make this kind of request, so I'm excited and want to make sure I don't leave anything out."

Planned Parenthood quickly apologized for the incident, and maintained that Kersey "violated the organization's principles and practices" in her actions. [6] The investigation extended to Planned Parenthood development departments in seven states, all of which, according to Lila Rose, were willing to process racist donations. In media appearances, Rose maintained that there is inherent racism in Planned Parenthood's policies and traced this to Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger's support for eugenics.

Criticism

Live Action's investigative tactics have been repeatedly criticized. Kathy Kneer, President and CEO of California Planned Parenthood, remarked after Live Action's statutory rape investigation, "[Rose and her accomplices] went in with an objective to manipulate our staff, and

they did succeed in manipulating our staff." Planned Parenthood of Id