Destiny Herndon-De La Rosa was born on August 10, 1983 to a nineteen-year-old sophomore at the University of Texas at Austin. She never knew her biological father. At age 16, she became pregnant and rejected abortion in favor of raising the child herself. Now married, she has four children, two boys and two girls. Although she formerly worked in architecture, she now runs her pro-life feminist group, , full time with the help of her Vice-President and close friend, Cessilye Smith.
New Wave Feminists
Herndon-De La Rosa co-founded pro-life feminist group New Wave Feminists in 2004. The group promotes the consistent life ethic, opposing the death penalty, torture, and unjust war. It also promotes intersectionality and an approach to abortion that favors economic and racial justice. While Herndon-De La Rosa and the New Wave Feminists are known primarily for opposition to abortion, she has also written on related pro-life subjects, such as an editorial published in The Dallas Morning News expressing opposition to calls for execution of Nikolas Cruz, the so-called "Parkland shooter", and to the death penalty in general. In 2018, Herndon-De La Rosa expelled co-founder Kristen Walker Hatten from her position as vice president of New Wave Feminists after she had emerged as a white nationalist in the wake of the election of Donald Trump. She has also been vocal in criticizing the association between some anti-abortion campaigners and the presidency of Donald Trump, as well as some campaigning tactics of the mainstream pro-life movement. In 2018, Herndon-De La Rosa traveled to Ireland to campaign against the repeal of the constitutional prohibition on abortion. During the mid-term elections of 2018, Herndon-De La Rosa posted a picture of her and Beto O'Rourke at a rally. She wrote an article explaining why she voted for him. Herndon-De La Rosa was criticized by other pro-life activists for supporting a candidate who fully endorsed abortion. In October of 2019 Herndon-De La Rosa released a statement on social media announcing her personal and organizational intention to sever ties with Abby Johnson's "And Then There Were None" abortion opposition group. Her stated reason was Abby's "blatantly racist statements" in a Twitter feud Johnson had with an African American minister. This resulted in some division among her friends and followers on various forums, which in turn led to an extended personal sabbatical from social media.
On January 13, 2017, 2017 Women's March event organizers granted the pro-life feminist group New Wave Feminists partnership status. But after the organization's involvement was publicized in The Atlantic, it was removed from the partners page on the march's website. Other anti-abortion groups that had been granted partnership status, including Abby Johnson's And Then There Were None and Stanton Healthcare, were subsequently unlisted as partners as well. However, New Wave Feminists still took part in the official march. Herndon-De La Roasa told St. Louis Review that she felt welcome at the event. Herndon-De La Rosa rejoined the 2018 Women's March.
