Pro-life feminism: “Taking feminism back from those who corrupted it”

From Huffington Post: 

While Republican lawmakers squabbled over a single bill banning abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, the anti-abortion movement’s leadership found common ground Wednesday discussing long-term strategy at a summit in the nation’s capital.

Much media attention focused on the annual March for Life, when tens of thousands of anti-abortion protesters converged Thursday on the National Mall. But a small related conference the day before, held at a hotel one mile north, revealed significantly more about how the movement plans to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and eliminate abortion across the country. Advocates gathered at the Law of Life Summit discussed how their organizations can leverage law and the media to advance their cause.

Several themes emerged at the conference.

Speaker after speaker talked about reclaiming the language and co-opting the label of feminism for their efforts. In doing that, they emphasized the need to reach out to younger Americans.

“How many people know what a ‘meme’ is?” Destiny Herndon-De La Rosa, a founder of New Wave Feminists, asked the audience of about 100 people.

The group, which pledges to “take feminism back from those who have corrupted it,” aims to use online humor and graphics to spread its message — much as opposing groups like the Center for Reproductive Rights do.

“We’re going to make the new feminism, the feminism of the future, pro-life feminism,” said Kristen Walker Hatten, also of New Wave Feminists. “We’re meeting the culture where they are — we’re using the humor, language and look of the culture and we’re infiltrating the culture of death. And we’re making pro-life feminism mainstream and real. We’re letting people know, hey, this exists.”

The two speakers also nodded to an idea that isn’t frequently acknowledged in anti-abortion circles.

“Even if abortion is made illegal tomorrow, they’re still going to be happening, so we really have to make abortion unthinkable,” Herndon-De La Rosa said.

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