Women’s March on Washington Dumps Pro-Life Group, Says The Platform Is ‘Pro-Choice And Always Has Been’


The Women’s March on Washington is scheduled for the day after the Trump inauguration, and organizers are expecting as many as 250,000 people to show up in solidarity. The event is designed to “greet” the controversial presidency of Donald Trump by “making a statement,” and the grassroots Women’s March on Washington’s statement is a clear one.

“The Women’s March on Washington will send a bold message to our new government on their first day in office, and to the world that women’s rights are human rights. We stand together, recognizing that defending the most marginalized among us is defending all of us.”

For those who can’t make it to Washington D.C., smaller, so-called “sister marches” are also planned across the globe, with roughly 700,000 people expressing online interest in taking place in one of those on the big day. As CNN reports, it’s not only women who are welcome to join the January 21 Women’s March on Washington. Anyone who is issued in fighting for the cause is welcome according to event organizers, a network of women’s rights advocates and veteran civil rights advocates from across the nation.

Anyone is welcome. Unless they are an adamantly pro-life group, that is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6N2PXt91EUw

As Fox News reports, the Women’s March on Washington unceremoniously dumped a notable pro-life group from its list of partners this week, and the Women’s March on Washington organizers cut the group from the event specifically based on their abortion stance.

The group, New Wave Feminists, announced on Sunday that it had become an “official partner” of the Women’s March on Washington. According to the group’s Facebook post announcement, they had been chosen for their prestigious position by Women’s March organizers, and their position as an official partner of the grassroots event elevated them to a status shared by groups such as NARAL Pro-Choice America and Planned Parenthood.

https://www.facebook.com/NewWaveFeminists/photos/a.342873355734792.79667.202144953140967/1371655899523194/?type=3

Despite being a flagrantly pro-life feminist organization.

New Wave Feminists, despite allying themselves with the Women’s March on Washington, which been publicly touted by Planned Parenthood and NARAL among other openly liberal, unapologetically pro-choice groups, is completely pro-life. On their website, they infer that pro-choice feminism “exploits women,” and that women have traded their womanhood for “a handful [of] pills.” What’s more, the group that was chosen as a partner for the Women’s March on Washington claims that feminism has been “corrupted” by pro-choice ideology.

“New Wave Feminists are here to take feminism back from those who have corrupted it.

“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 a** women truly are.

“Also, we’re pretty flippin’ funny and have totally rad hair.”

Not surprisingly, the when New Wave Feminists’ alliance with the Women’s March on Washington caught the attention of the media, not everyone was happy. Many pro-choice groups, activists, and writers publicly decried the decision of the Women’s March to get into bed with the pro-life organization, and it didn’t take long for the group to be dumped from the Women’s March on Washington’s partner list.

The Women’s March no bones about why it dumped New Wave Feminists. The organizers of the Washington D.C. event issued a public statement calling the partnership with the pro-life group an “error.” What’s more, the Women’s March on Washington called the group “anti-choice,” adding that the Women’s March on Washington is pro-choice.

“The Women’s March platform is pro-choice and has been from day one. We look forward to marching on behalf of individuals who share the view that women deserve the right to make their own reproductive decisions. The anti-choice organization in question is not a partner of the women’s March on Washington. We apologize for the error.”

According to the New Wave Feminists’ chairwoman, the Women’s March on Washington organizers didn’t contact her about the change in the groups’ partnership. Destiny Herndon-De La Rosa believes that the Women’s March “caved.”

“I can only assume they caved to the backlash on social media after the Atlantic piece came out saying we were listed as partners.”

Despite no longer being “partners,” the pro-life feminist organization vows to join in the Women’s March anyway.

“We will definitely be there with our pro-life, pro-woman message. These are the women we would be trying to reach, anyway.”

Despite the fact that the pro-life feminist organization has been dumped as a partner of the Women’s March on Washington, the organizers of the event say that pro-life individuals are more than welcome to be a part of the march.

However, other feminists, such as Elizabeth Velez, a professor of women and gender studies at Georgetown University, believe that being pro-choice is fundamental to being a true feminist. After all, how can a woman be treated with equality if she cannot even choose what to do with her own body?

“Feminism is more than finding personal satisfactions in your life, it’s a political movement, and if you are not part of the political movement you can’t be a feminist. If you are pro-life you are certainly not looking at the struggles across all of us.”

Even if pro-life feminists and other pro-lifers feel disenfranchised by this weekend’s Women’s March, they need not fret, because the biggest pro-life march on the planet is coming to D.C. on January 27; March for Life 2017. It’s a world-renowned platform specifically created to further the pro-life cause. And while the Women’s March on Washington is taking a lot of flack for severing its “partnership” with the New Wave Feminists, March for Life doesn’t affiliate itself with pro-choice groups, and it’s doing pretty well for itself.

What do you think? Do you think the Women’s March on Washington made the right call in distancing itself from the New Wave Feminists? What are your thoughts about the Women’s March on Washington, and do you plan on attending?

[Featured Image by Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo]

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