Bill Berkowitz: Young, Gifted, and Intensely Anti-Abortion

BUZZFLASH GUEST COMMENTARY
By Bill Berkowitz

Ignacio Reyes and David Schmidt have the look of a boy band; they're young and flashy, earnest and media-savvy. As leaders of the group Live Action, they're committed to organizing a corps of young anti-abortion activists.

During a town hall meeting hosted by Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), a neatly attired young man rose to ask the congresswoman a question. He identified himself as Ignacio Reyes and he asked Lofgren: "We know that over 90 percent of abortions are purely elective, not medically necessary. Why is this being covered when abortion is not clearly health care?" The question -- a fair one, and asked politely -- was greeted by a round of applause and cheers from some members of the audience. "Abortion will be covered as a benefit by one or more of the healthcare plans available to Americans, and I think it should be," Lofgren responded.

In a story posted at LifeSiteNews.com headlined "Cat out of the Bag: Dem Congresswoman Admits ObamaCare Covers Elective Abortions," Peter J. Smith reported that Lofgren "admitted to her California constituents … what the Obama administration has tried desperately to keep quiet: the health care reform bill covers abortions."

On hand to videotape the proceedings, and quickly post it on You Tube, was a fellow named David R. Schmidt. (Schmidt's video is titled "Dem Congresswomen Admits ObamaCare = Taxpayer Funded Abortion Coverage.")

Both Ignacio Reyes (the questioner) and David R. Schmidt (the videographer) are members of a group called Live Action, the anti-abortion organization founded by Lila Rose. On its Web site, Live Action maintains that it is "a youth led movement dedicated to advancing life rights and the truth that all men are created equal… . [which] use[s] new media and educational presentations to celebrate life and expose threats posed against the vulnerable and defenseless." It also points out that it "is strictly non-violent and only endorses or allies with groups that are also non-violent."

Schmidt's You Tube video quickly bled over into a number of other outlets, from Web sites and blogs to newszines and news aggregators. Perhaps not surprising in this age of proliferating media, Live Action's activists became significant content providers. Make no mistake, this wasn't a Susan Boyle moment, and their You Tube version will never come close to topping then-candidate Barack Obama's speech on race which, within 48 hours garnered nearly 1.5 million viewers, but it did provide for another distraction for President Obama's health care reform project.

Lofgren's comment fired up a flagging movement and led to a series of provocative headlines at conservative Web sites, including one at the Heritage Foundation's Web site that read "Townhall Downfall: Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) Admits Obamacare Will Fund Abortions." Despite FactCheck.org concluding that "none of the health care overhaul measures that have made it through the committee level in Congress say that abortion will be covered, and one of them explicitly says that no public funds will be used to finance the procedure," the headlines at conservative media outlets and Web sites continue unabated.

Lila Rose, the founder of Live Action, has become a celebrity amongst anti-abortion activists since her surreptitiously shot undercover videos of visits to several Planned Parenthood clinics around the country started appearing on You Tube. During those visits, Rose, a student at UCLA, claimed to be a teenager impregnated by an older man, and she tried to get PP staffers or volunteers to advise her to lie about the man's age.

Live Action's Mona Lisa Project "document[s] Planned Parenthood's willingness to repeatedly violate mandatory reporting laws for statutory rape that protect children," the group's Web site proclaims. "Our series of hidden camera investigations, collected by a team led by … Rose in summer 2008, provide the public the inside story about the abortion industry and its abuses across the nation. Despite a consistent pattern of lawlessness and abuse, Planned Parenthood receives over $320 million from taxpayers each year. The tax-exempt "nonprofit" netted $100 million in net income last year including revenue of over $120 million directly from performing over 305,000 abortions." The Mona Lisa Project hopes that its work "will lead to criminal prosecution of Planned Parenthood so that their business practices will be forced to comply with governing laws that protect young girls."

Reyes is listed as the Executive Director of Live Action's San Jose, Calif. chapter, and Schmidt is listed as its CFO/Media Director.

Reyes, Schmidt, and Rose, represent a growing trend within the anti-abortion movement; a turn toward younger leaders that are confrontational, technologically savvy, fully conversant with 21st century cultural markers, and who maintain an ongoing presence on social networking sites. Their message may be similar to their anti-abortion forebears, but their delivery system is decidedly 21st century, including a flair for in-your-face drama.

Under Reyes' leadership, according to his bio posted at the Live Action Web site, "the chapter has reached thousands of youth across California through multimedia presentations that educate on the value of human life, the issue of abortion and how to defend the pro-life position. Besides speaking in school and church settings, the group also hosts creative outreach through an annual, 'Hip-Hop for Life' event."

Since 2003, Reyes has served "as the apologetics teacher at Christian Community of San Jose. …In 2004, [he] started volunteering at Community Pregnancy Centers speaking at high schools and churches around Silicon Valley on the value of human sexuality and the importance of chastity." Reyes "is currently enrolled at Evergreen Valley College and is working on transferring to Biola University to obtain a degree in philosophy."

Located in La Mirada, in Southern California -- with several satellite campuses -- Biola University is a private evangelical Christian college founded The University was founded in 1908 as the Bible Institute of Los Angeles by Lyman Stewart, co-owner of the Union Oil Company of California (subsequently known as Unocal; the company was purchased by Chevron and no longer exists), and T.C. Horton, a well-known minister and Christian author. According to Wikipedia, Biola University is "officially non-denominational" … . [and is] well-known for its conservative Evangelical doctrine…" Although students and faculty hold various perspectives," Biola holds to the key doctrine of Biblical inerrancy…. [and] also officially holds to the teaching of premillennial dispensationalism." As a requirement for tenure, Biola requires "that every new faculty hire, and again when faculty members apply for tenure, submit their understanding of, and complete agreement with, each item of the doctrinal statement to the Talbot School of Theology for evaluation." Howard Ahmanson, Jr. the mega-wealthy funder of a host of Christian conservative causes, candidates and projects and a longtime supporter of Christian Reconstructionism, has been a generous donor to Biola.

According to David R. Schmidt's bio (also published at the Live action Web site), he "is a human rights activist who specializes in grassroots organizing with an emphasis on web technology and reaching today's youth. He is passionate about exposing corruption and advancing protection and respect for all human being. His ardent support for universal life rights and desire to educate through new media about injustice brought him to Live Action. In addition to studying speech and debate in high school, he produced a full-length feature film that won film festival acceptance."

Schmidt graduated from The Master's College in 2006 with a degree in business administration; has served as Student Body President "focus[ing] on increasing communication with the student body and on developing future student leaders." Since graduation, Schmidt "worked in investment banking where he became the youngest registered securities principal at a firm that specialized in non-profit corporate financing." He has his own video You Tube channel called "Issues and Answers" and a Web site of the same name, and he is the owner and president of a media relations company called Evercor Consulting.

Evercor aims to "harness the power of new technologies combined with behavior and social analysis to get your cause, candidate, or organization the attention it deserves." The company "advises organizations in the areas of podcasting, video-to-web, technology infrastructure, online outreach, internet activism, social networking, youth messaging, and grassroots organizing."

Reyes and Schmidt have the look of a boy band, but with more serious concerns. They're young and flashy -- though not too flashy -- earnest and committed. Although their organizing appears to be still limited to their Northern California turf, their technological know-how has opened up a new universe of possibilities. They are definitely connecting with young people. That alone should merit the attention of pro-choice advocates.

BUZZFLASH GUEST COMMENTARY

Bill Berkowitz is a longtime observer of the conservative movement and a frequent writer for Z Magazine, Religion Dispatches and other online publications. He documents the strategies, players, institutions, victories, and defeats of the American Right from a progressive perspective.

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