Pro-life groups banded together to bring relief and support to the southern border, and their philanthropic efforts raised nearly $50,000 worth of aid in under a week. America’s southern border is overwhelmed by an influx of migrants, and the facilities are far too inadequate to serve as temporary housing, so various pro-life groups have stepped up to offer assistance to those in detention facilities at the border. Known as “Bottles to the Border,” the effort is a result of a collaboration between the pro-life New Wave Feminists and the And Then There Were None (ATTWN)ministry led by former Planned Parenthood director, Abby Johnson.
The founder of NWF, Destiny Herndon-De La Rosa, stated this issue “goes well beyond politics.” Dubbing it a “people issue,” Herndon-De La Rosa encouraged pro-lifers to stand for life by caring for the vulnerable people at the border, professing that “we are a movement that’s built on caring about the human dignity of all human beings.”
Herndon-De La Rosa teamed up with Johnson’s ATTWN pro-life organization before to provide feminine hygiene products to shelters in Houston after Hurricane Harvey in 2017. She then led her NWF organization to assist with the crisis at the border back in December by raising $9,000 for a respite center in McAllen, Texas. The efforts of her organization have garnered even more support, as a recent Catholic News Agency Report found over 40 pro-life groups have committed themselves to the cause.
Speaking on her involvement with the relief efforts, Pamela Whitehead, the program director of the Texas-based ATTWN, said:
“If I lived in a world where abortion was unthinkable but hunger, homelessness, and hopelessness all increased, would I have accomplished my pro-life mission? If I really want to care about people, then I have to live that out.”
Whitehead’s statement perfectly encapsulates the philosophy of the pro-life movement, and how it seeks to preserve the sanctity of life by caring for all of those who have been rendered vulnerable through dire circumstances. Johnson took to Facebook recently to profess a similar sentiment, stating:
“I encourage us as a movement to not just be against abortion. Let’s be a movement that is FOR more than we are against. Let’s be a movement that reaches out to those who need our physical and emotional assistance…whether those people are walking into an abortion clinic, at the border, or are homeless.”
The New Wave Feminists collected donations for their campaign through July 13. All of the donations raised were given to organizations and respite centers which were properly vetted to ensure they do not support the abortion industry in any capacity, such as Immigrant Families Together, and a respite center run by Sister Norma Pimentel. Johnson’s ATTWN group also partnered WITH New Wave Feminists and other charities to collect goods such as diapers, shoelaces, and bottles, and took the supplies down in a donated 18-wheeler semi truck. In the end, more than $120,000 worth of supplies were brought to the border and more than $70,000 in donations were given to respite centers.
The compassionate relief being sent to those in crisis at the border is another example of how the pro-life movement can commit itself to protecting life by serving those in need.
