In 2016, she was kicked out of the left-leaning Women’s March because she was opposed to abortion. Now, as the crisis along the southern border rages on, the agnostic founder of New Wave Feminists is partnering with Christian pro-life groups to meet the needs of migrants crossing into the United States.
Destiny Herndon-De La Rosa has always been somewhat of an ideological nomad — an independent thinker who doesn’t fit comfortably into any one space. But she’s certainly found safe haven with those who, like her, oppose abortion and embrace a pro-life ethic.
Sick of hearing all the bickering about the border from conservatives and liberals, Herndon-De La Rosa decided she would put her pro-life principles into practice.
Contrary to complaints from the movement’s detractors, the New Wave Feminists leader told Faithwire over the phone Wednesday it’s a “false premise” to suggest people in the pro-life community care only about children before they are born.
“I think the thing that, to me, blows that narrative out of the water, that we only care about children in the womb, is look at the people who are actually down at the border every single day helping,” she said. “It is predominantly Catholic charities, it is nuns who are running these facilities, it is pro-life people who have been doing this work the entire time.”
While the media and politicians were busy debating Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-N.Y.) suggestion migrant detention facilities are akin to “concentration camps” from the 1940s, the New Wave Feminists were assembling an impressive network of connections with more than 50 nonprofit organizations — many of them pro-life Christian groups — to take supplies to the border for its second Bottles to the Border campaign.
The biggest partnership the New Wave Feminists has had is with And Then There Were None, the pro-life advocacy organization started by Abby Johnson, the former Planned Parenthood executive turned pro-life activist whose personal story was the subject of the recent Pure Flix film “Unplanned.”
Johnson’s group, Herndon-De La Rosa said, has been “working tirelessly on this effort since we announced it two weeks ago and they are doing a really great job.”
To date, the Bottles to the Border initiative has raised more than $120,000 worth of supplies, which will be transported to the border town of McAllen, Texas, Saturday by an 18-wheeler and a driver given to the group by a trucking company as an in-kind donation.
The list of products consists of things like water, baby bottles, feminine hygiene products, shoelaces, and clothing, all of which will be going to humanitarian respite centers along the border. The New Wave Feminists have also been donating rosaries to migrants who had theirs taken away when they were placed in the detention centers.
“I think the pro-life message that I keep coming back to in this is that no human being should feel unwanted,” Herndon-De La Rosa said, “whether it’s in the womb or in a detainment center.”
Much like women facing crisis pregnancies shouldn’t turn to violence via abortions, neither should the U.S. treat those crossing into the country — illegally or not — with hostility, she added.
Regardless of what people think of the situation along the border, it’s become apparent the government is failing to fix the problem.
“You see people ranting, ‘This is what the government should do, this is what the government should do,’ and for me, the government is the one that created this mess administrations ago,” Herndon-De La Rosa said, “so ranting about the government finding a solution doesn’t actually do anything.”
The only way to make a difference, she continued, is helping out “in practical ways, because ultimately, “This is a people issue, not a political issue.”
If you would like to donate to the New Wave Feminists campaign, click here.