On August 18, the non-profit organization My Faith Votes hosted a Q&A with pro-life activist Lila Rose, founder of Live Action. Lila Rose has built a career off of creating deceptive videos in an attempt to block access to abortion and shut down clinics across the country that provide life-saving care to women, pregnant people, and families. Knowing she was going to be taking questions on the call, I was curious about what work she was doing or instructing her followers to be doing to fight for life after babies are born — with a rapidly changing climate, consistent cuts to public services and education, and a health care system that leaves many behind, we live in a country that is increasingly hostile to vulnerable families.

I got on the call, and I asked Lila Rose, “What does it mean to be pro-life after babies are born and specifically what you think should be the top three policy priorities to support struggling mothers and their infants once they’re home from the hospital?” She answered, giving almost 1,000 words of a response that never answered my question. She reiterated an anti-abortion message with vague statements about helping struggling mothers, but offered no solutions for providing support, material or otherwise, to children and their parents after they are born.

When I think about dignity and reproductive justice, there are many parts that must come together to support the autonomy and needs of every human being. When Lila says, “We have to have laws that protect and respect infants, children, mothers, that are conducive to serving families,” I agree – but the problem is that she is a hypocrite. I envision a healthy world in which families are fully supported, and where children are able to thrive regardless of economic status. I imagine healthy communities where parents have the resources available to raise children and are able to do so without fear of state violence.

In the last several years in my home state of Wisconsin, I’ve watched a governor who identifies as 100 percent pro-life reject funding for food stamps, drastically cut education funding, and refuse to address the state’s status as the worst place to raise black children. I’ve watched a clinic close in my hometown because it cannot protect doctors and patients from pro-life violence while police officers routinely harass, abuse, and kill young people of color without consequence. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has strikingly similar talking points as Lila Rose, stating, “I’ve said for years, medically there’s always a better choice than choosing between the life of an unborn baby and the life of the mother,” in response to questions about his extreme stances on abortion, while under his leadership, marginalized families in Wisconsin have suffered greatly. When I asked Lila Rose my question, I was looking for suggestions on how to halt a political pattern destructive to the lives of children and their parents, but instead received more phony propaganda dedicated to controlling the reproductive lives of women.

I unapologetically support access to abortion for all because I trust people to make their own decisions about their bodies and the futures of their families. I know that the reasons people choose to terminate their pregnancies are vast and valid, and that all pregnancy outcomes should be honored. Over half of women who have abortions in the U.S. are already mothers, doing the work of raising children that Lila Rose claims to revere. Every day, parents are raising their children while navigating a work world often resistant to the needs of families. Mothers are fighting for access to quality jobs and affordable childcare.

When Lila told me, “I think public policy needs to recognize women’s contributions and make sure that women have equal opportunities to men in any area, in any sector of public life, whether it’s, whether we’re leaders in politics or in business or in education, and I think that’s certainly something that our country has made a lot of strides on in the last century but I think we need to have a different attitude,” part of me wants to applaud. What she didn’t do, however, was follow up with any calls for the changes needed to create a world in which these ideas are a reality. She didn’t encourage those of us listening to fight for maternity and paternity leave, universal childcare, living wages, or fully funded public education. She didn’t talk about how to combat sexism in the workplace, or how to create fair policies for queer families to grow and thrive. A pro-life agenda responsible for creating barriers to abortion care while simultaneously remaining silent, even when asked, about the anti-family policies making parenting difficult across the country is not just hypocritical, but is the core framework for leaders like Lila Rose and the pro-life movement invested in taking agency away from women.

I desperately want to live in a world that honors women, mothers, parents, and children. I think all the time about what a supportive community might look like for me as I plan my own journey to become a mom. So when I listened to Lila Rose talk about what pro-life policies look like after babies are born, only to be met with a call for more funding for crisis pregnancy centers that lie to women, I was reminded of the harsh reality and impact of the pro-life movement. I was reminded that Lila Rose has risen to fame with the help of organizations such as Alliance Defending Freedom that fight against legal protections for LGBTQ families. When I asked her for her top three policy suggestions to create a more supportive world for parents and their infants, she didn’t give me one.

Though leaders like Lila purport to be invested in supporting children, their advocacy starts and ends with fighting safe abortion, using deceit, false medical claims, and shame to push an agenda unconcerned with the futures of women, pregnant people, and families. At the very least, I wish Lila Rose would be honest about that.