Destiny Herndon-De La Rosa and Kristen Hatten don’t fit the stereotypical profile of a modern-day feminist. Both are active pro-lifers who speak on college campuses across the country and put together creative educational campaigns that expose the lies of the abortion industry.
But they don’t fit the stereotypical profile of a pro-lifer either. And that’s something they hope to change.
The Federalist writer David Marcus, who attended one of their presentations in Manhattan, called Hatten and Herndon-De La Rosa “the most effective pro-life advocates I had ever seen.” He said the focus of their Texas-based group, New Wave Feminism, is on the rights of both women and unborn babies.
“We will no longer believe the lie that we are week and need abortion in order to succeed in a ‘man’s world’,” Herndon-De La Rosa said on the group’s Facebook page. “For far too long women were viewed as nothing more than property, and we refuse to let society put that same label on our children.”
One of the things Hatten and Herndon-De La Rosa do is take pro-abortion feminists to task for failing to address issues like coerced and forced abortions, which exploit both unborn babies and their mothers, Marcus wrote. Recently, for example, the ACLU and Planned Parenthood fought against a Michigan bill that would protect victims of human trafficking and abuse from coerced abortions.
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His report continues:
[Herndon-De La Rosa’s] remarks began much the way many feminist critiques of modern culture do, with a focus of the hyper-sexualization of the female form. But this went well beyond the dangers of unrealistic body images. The deeper point was that abortion plays a critical role in defining women’s current sexual mores and practices. When Cosmopolitan magazine tells women their primary value lies in having sex with men, they are feeding the abortion industry. When the feminist Left tells women that a fetus is just a clump of cells with no value, it feeds the idea that sex is a hobby with no attendant responsibilities.
Herndon-De La Rosa went on to argue that the acceptance and availability of abortion divorces sex from relationships. She told stories of young women who never had a boyfriend, but had multiple sex partners. These young women knew something was missing, and far too many young men are willing to take advantage of this attitude for their own pleasure without any responsibilities.
… Left-wing feminism, always eager to worship at the altar of abortion, fails women by refusing to grapple with these issues. In reclaiming the term “feminism,” NWF is taking the fight to pro-abortion advocates on their own terms. This approach, now widely being used by young conservatives (who were often raised with liberal orthodoxy) on many fronts is effective because it turns the tables on the Left and shows how wanting their theories really are.
Hatten said NWF also uses the dark humor of satire to expose the abortion industry’s abuses against babies and women. After the Center for Medical Progress released its first undercover video showing one of Planned Parenthood’s top employees discussing the sale of aborted babies’ body parts, NWF created a video comparing Planned Parenthood to Nazi doctor Joseph Mengele. The video pokes fun at the abortion chain and Mengele, but NWF makes it clear that there is “never anything funny about the atrocities committed under the guise of ‘medical research.’”
Hatten and De La Rosa sum up their approach with this statement on their website:
Sometime before we were born our womanhood was traded for a handful of birth control pills, the “privilege” to degrade ourselves in playboy, and the “right” to abort our children.
It’s time for the return of common sense feminism which refuses to exploit women in the name of liberation and create victims while settling for equality. Instead we will live up to our full potential and demand others rise up to that level as we embrace how strong and bad ass women truly are.
Also, we’re pretty flippin’ funny and have totally rad hair.
Their creative pro-life, pro-woman approach is catching people’s attention. In March, the New York Times published a front page photo of a young woman holding a New Wave Feminist sign that read “I am a prolife feminist.” Planned Parenthood was not happy.
Groups like New Wave Feminists and Feminists for Life are taking back feminism from abortion activists who claimed it several decades ago. Like the first wave of feminists, the missions of these groups are resonating with the public because they recognize that being pro-woman means fighting for babies in the womb, too.
