“When a man steals to satisfy hunger, we may safely conclude that there is something wrong in society—so when a woman destroys the life of her unborn child, it is an evidence that either by education or circumstances she has been greatly wronged.”  Mattie Brinkerhoff, The Revolution ● 1869

When I created the slogan “Women Deserve Better^® than Abortion, I didn’t simply mean saying “no” to abortion, it meant saying “yes” to the resources that support pregnant women and their children—before and after birth.

Abortion is a reflection that we have not met the needs of women. Abortion masks the unmet needs of women in the workplace, schools, home and society. Abortion hurts the most vulnerable in society—the poor, the working poor, women in difficult and often abusive relationships, and students and women in the workplace whose basic needs are ignored. 

Feminists for Life is dedicated to systematically eliminating the root causes that drive women to abortion—primarily lack of practical resources and support—through holistic, woman-centered solutions. Women deserve better than abortion. 

Women have sought real solutions since entering the workforce.  Women want—and deserve—equal opportunities for pay and position in the work place.  Flex time, job sharing, and telecommuting.  Comprehensive health care.  Maternity benefits and parental leave.  Affordable, quality child care.  Shared parental responsibility.  Child support. 

Feminists for Life has been leading a similar discussion with students, administrators, and professors on college campuses.  Both students and faculty want more resources.  Affordable housing.  Financial aid and scholarship security.  Maternity coverage in student health plans.  Accessible child care.  Flexible class scheduling. Counseling services.  Publicized policies that support pregnant women and parents. Students and staff need a central place on campus to coordinate these services. 

No woman should be forced to choose between relinquishing her education and career plans or suffering through a humiliating, invasive procedure and sacrificing her child.  We refuse to choose.^®

Abortion represents a failure to listen and respond to the unmet needs of women.  Why perpetuate failure?           

Pro-life feminists recognize abortion as a symptom of, not a solution to, the continuing struggles women face in the workplace, on campus, at home, and in the world at large. 

Feminists for Life is a renaissance of the original American feminism. Like Susan B. Anthony and other early American suffragists, today’s pro-life feminists envision a better world, where no woman would be driven by desperation to abortion: 

• A world in which pregnancy, motherhood and birthmotherhood are accepted and supported. 
• Campuses and workplaces that support mothers in practical ways rather than forcing them to choose between their education or career plans and their children. 
• A society that supports the role of mothers and values the role of fathers and helps fathers provide both financial and emotional support for their children. 
• A culture where parents are respected, whether they stay at home or return to work. 

We have worked for low-income women. We have worked to prevent violence against women, including pregnant women.  We have worked to protect women from being forced into unwanted abortions. We have worked to reduce poverty among women and children, prevent coerced abortions due to threats to withhold child support, and instead encourage the active support of fathers in the lives of their children.  We have led the revolution on campus through the FFL College Outreach Program to meet the needs of college-age women who have the highest rate of abortion.  Since the College Outreach Program began in 1994, there has been a dramatic 30% decrease in abortions among college-educated women.  We believe that education is key to fighting the feminization of poverty.  Sixty-nine percent of abortions are performed on the poor, working poor and economically disadvantaged.  FFL Pregnancy Resource Forums on top campuses across the country inspired Pregnancy Assistance Fund which will, in part, help transform campuses in support of pregnant and parenting students, birthmothers.  We advocate workplace solutions that benefit both employee and employer.  And we have educated the pro-life and feminist movements about America’s rich pro-life feminist history.  

Our message that Women Deserve Better^® than Abortion is redirecting the polarized debate toward holistic, woman-centered solutions. 

When I found Feminists for Life I knew I was home. I wasn’t interested in criminalizing women who had abortion. I am driven by freeing women from abortion through resources and support. 

You too can be proud to be a part of the solutions. Join us, because women don’t have to settle for less, because there is a better way. And yes, this invitation extends to men who have a right to share in the joy and responsibility of caring for our children. 

For more reasons you can be proud to be a member of Feminists for Life, FFL President Serrin M. Foster invites you to go to www.feministsforlife.org/news click on “accomplishments” and then to the “Support Us” button.   

® Women Deserve Better, Refuse to Choose, and The American Feminist are registered trademarks of Feminists for Life of America.

 Amy Winehouse.  July 23 2011: Dead at age 27,

the misadventure of alcohol poisoning.

2008 Grammy Awards:  Record of the Year, Song of the Year,

Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, Best New Artist.

Winehouse’s premature death and public self-abuse is a tragedy for women, a lethal role model for girls.  Her flamboyant failure to survive challenges feminists: why does a profound talent like Winehouse – described as a young Ella Fitzgerald – crash and burn despite the opportunity feminists have labored to bequeath her generation?  Have we paved the way for every success but that which matters most?    

Blame her fans for “over-demanding consumption of authenticity;” blame the schools where Amy “didn’t get a lot in class” or blame the failure of her synagogue to form her in the Jewish tradition of female prominence.  Blame her for not taking control of her addictions.  These factors play a role.   But Winehouse was a brilliant singer-song writer and she tells her own story.

Do you hear a mournful young woman as anguished over her fading dreams of love as she is unwilling to let go of her image that a man should “stronger than me?”  This was Winehouse’s debut album Frank.  Then barely 20 years old, looking healthy and full, Winehouse’s 2003 lyrics unfold a heart wrenching longing for a man, a male as healthy in his masculinity as Winehouse is prepared to be in her femininity: 

 You should be stronger than me,
But instead you’re longer than frozen turkey,
Why’d you always put me in control?

All I need is for my man to live up to his role,
Always wanna talk it through – I’m ok,
Always have to comfort you every day,
But that’s what I need you to do – are you gay?

Winehouse’s conclusion – “you should be stronger than me” – bemoans her slipping femininity, teetering about on high heels, struggling to steady a drunk posing as a man.  She takes us to the precipice of dashed dreams and overwhelming disappointment as a complete gender role reversal shifts the floor boards : 

Cause I’ve forgotten all of young love’s joy,
Feel like a lady, and you my lady boy

Three short years later, Winehouse’s lyrics transitioned from complaining “you my lady boy” to an alarming self-loathing, rawly expressed in this cut You Know I Am No Good. 

Here we experience a leaner, meaner, more calloused, worn and tattooed Winehouse who has turned her lyrics against herself.  Her longing remains but, now, she’s bad; she cheats sexually on someone who does not seem to care and her dreams are defeated, not by “my lady boy” but by her own behavior.  She holds herself at fault for her misery.  She is 24 years old – and will be dead soon.

I cheated myself,
Like I knew I would
I told you I was trouble,
You know that I’m no good,

These lyrics from You Know I Am No Good, like others on her 2007 Back to Black, offer “an album’s worth of heartbroken songs,” roundly agreed to reflect the deeply troubled and dysfunctional relationship and marriage she attempted with Blake Fielder-Civil, a drug-user and convict.  While Winehouse reportedly had subsequent relationships, her passion for Fielder-Civil remained the prominent narrative in her life, even as their family and friends urged that the relationship was doomed.

Despite their families’ efforts to separate the pair, Winehouse insisted that Fielder-Civil was the love of her life.  She persisted in a drug-ridden, abusive relationship that was many things, but not tender, nurturing or loving.  Fielder-Civil never approached her hope for “a man to live up to his role.”  Her lyrics and talent remained tethered to a dream of masculine love impossible to realize in a Fielder-Civil.  Somehow, despite the reordered world delivered to her by empowering feminists, she remained unequipped to distinguish her longing for manly love and the “lady man” upon whom her young emotions attached. 

Compare now a very different, very feminine Winehouse who appears to us posthumously.  This Winehouse seems a near-caricature of her own longing:  coy looks, relaxed face, liquid movements, shy but flirtatious glances – as Tony Bennett croons her to her the old fashioned way, Body and Soul.

Released after her nearly-suicidal death, we are left to savor this decidedly tragic image:  an once-in-a-decade talent melting with her deepest longings – and then vanishing.  Gone forever.  This is the tragedy of Amy Winehouse:  prepared to pursue celebrity and fame, but never equipped to find and secure the love of a good man. 

I call upon all feminists to reflect upon this story – not unlike many others being played out by young women celebrities.  Should we not spend more time helping our young women find complete fulfillment – even when that means forging a traditional male-female, committed relationship of love and loyalty?  Should we not support them in love with the same intensity we support and encourage their careers?  If we did, we might still have Amy Winehouse and her powerhouse talent to enjoy into old age.

I miss her.  I feel we failed her.  I leave you with this gritty-as-grime Youtube in which Winehouse’s shares her stunning talent – as well as her desperate pain.  Feminism certainly failed this young woman.  

Marcel Proust said, “If only for the sake of elegance, I try to remain morally pure.”

Those who abide by this creed find its worst offender in Kim Kardashian. (For those of you who haven’t heard, the promiscuous reality TV star married in August 2011 and was divorced just a short seventy-two days later—an incident which resulted in heavy criticism and ridicule.)

The ridicule usually goes something like this:

Kim Kardashian is so stupid.
Do you KNOW how much her ring cost?
That thing was doomed from the start.
It was all for the money.
Wow. Like anyone actually took that “marriage” seriously.
Ha! You know they’re trying to get an annulment. An annulment!

And it goes on.

The responses amaze me. Usually, when we hear of divorce, we pity the couple. And yet, when Kim’s story hit People magazine we did not leave room for any pity.

Many women will respond that she doesn’t deserve pity because she “knew what she was getting herself into” (do we know this?) But many will go further than denying pity. They go on directly to despising her. There is a cruel cattiness in the mindless chatter in the grocery store checkout line. And that that cruelty originates from a profound insecurity within us.

We despise Kim Kardashian because we can’t deal with the things we despise about ourselves. Deep down we know well our ignorance, our lust, our selfishness, our vanity, our pride—but we can tend to spend much of our lives trying to hide it, avoid it, or project it on to others. Kim is too clumsy and too sloppy to hide anything. She gets divorced, and it doesn’t matter if half the country is also divorced—she just doesn’t have the right timing. It doesn’t matter if the rest of the world sleeps around. Kim sleeps around just a little bit too much. It doesn’t matter if more than half of the women in the world have forgotten the concept of modesty, Kim’s shirt is just a tad bit lower and she is labeled trash. Kim lacks one of our female culture’s favorite false virtues—the ability to keep up appearances. Kim doesn’t play the game right. And so she is easily made the scapegoat. Her story riles us not because it represents the degradation of marriage—we already know about the degradation of marriage. Her story riles us because it gives us an opportunity to forget the ways in which we have failed—because her failure is so outright and obvious.

This attitude is something we women struggle with a lot. We tend to despise the “slut.” And we tend to get a sinister sort of pleasure out of that. It is ironic. For we are in the age of relativism when any sort of moral opinion is often seen as judgmental by its very nature. But often the same women who don’t ever want to be “judged” or have their moral lives challenged are those who rant about the town/school/community “slut.”

And we rant because it gives us power. Gossip, slander, all of that gives us a sense of power. If we can put down the one who is easy to put down, we feel ourselves momentarily elevated. For if I can let everyone know about how awful she is, perhaps then I won’t feel so bad about myself.

But we know that the power is fleeting. We know that Mr. Proust’s quote is quite empty. For elegance, while appealing, is only an outer garment. If there’s anything that Kim’s story should do for us, it should make us examine what is beneath that outer garment. It should make us examine our own moral purity. Rather than despise her we should wish her well and pray for her. For we do not know what Mary Magdalene we throw stones at with our words. And although we may have hid it well with our class, we often forget the many times when we were that Mary and someone reached out a loving hand.

By way of introduction, I look forward to sharing what I’ve learned, as a breast surgeon, physician, mother and wife in this New Feminism blog. Before “New” was attached to it, I was always a “New Feminist” at heart. I was pre-med in college from 1967-1971 at a Long Island university noted for its science programs and for being the first college with a campus wide drug bust that made the national news. The Vietnam War sent some of my friends to ‘Nam and changed them forever. The sexual revolution was in full swing and regretfully I participated with enthusiasm. Medical school in D.C. was difficult in a hostile environment. Male students would tell me I would be the cause of their roommate’s death because they had been drafted after I had taken their “spot” in medical school. There were too many women in the class (21 out of 210) and we were just going to get married and never practice anyway. Many of the professors were of the same opinion. I wasn’t smart; I was just lucky on multiple choice tests, even if I did defy the odds consistently. As bad as my fellow medical students were, they couldn’t compare to my fellow surgical residents during training. It was not by chance that there were only 1200 female surgeons in the country at the start of my surgical residency. They really toughened me up.

Luckily, I met my husband who was working as an OR technician at the university hospital by my junior year. We’ve had a good marriage for the past 37 years. Long years of training in Family Medicine, General Surgery and then a Vascular Fellowship let the years fly by so it wasn’t until I had been married 17 years that I had my only child at age 41. If I had known then what I know now, that fertility decreases greatly at that age, I wouldn’t have waited so long to try for my first and only. I might have been too pessimistic to even try. My husband was the one who stayed home for her so she could get the kind of upbringing that would be the most conducive to being happy, healthy and secure. She is all that and more.

In the course of my professional career, I noticed that there were a whole lot more young women with breast cancer than there should be and that the incidence had gone from 1 in 12 when I graduated medical school to 1 in 8 in just 30 years. When I looked into risk factors for this, it became clear that oral contraceptives, induced abortion, and delayed first pregnancies accounted for a good number of these early breast cancers. Having patients in their 20s with breast cancer and seeing them die in their 30s made me want to try to do something that would prevent those cancers. To that end, in 1999 I co-founded the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute which educates the public and medical professionals on the risks and prevention of breast cancer.

The old feminism sought equality with men through complete reproductive control using oral contraceptives and the necessary back up of abortion. Without them, women felt they could never climb the corporate ladder. It was as if women needed to live their lives with the same sexual license as men in order to achieve equality. We thought we could have children whenever we wanted no matter our age. We could even have them without a husband. We just needed to buy a deposit from a sperm bank.

If we only knew then what we know now: that oral contraceptives are a Group 1 carcinogen for breast, cervical and liver cancer; that abortion causes breast cancer, premature births and serious psychological problems; that women need husbands as children need fathers; that sexual intercourse sets off hormonal changes within in us that bonds us to our mate. The theories of the old feminism, no matter how strongly or earnestly embraced, could not change the hard wiring in our brains or in our hearts. It is hard to look back and admit we were so wrong about so many things.

It is my hope, that by sharing those lessons that were so painfully learned, women will heal and help a new generation to enjoy the fruits of the New Feminism. I hope that women learn how they are different from men and why it’s a good thing.

Teresa Tomeo is an author, syndicated Catholic talk show host, and motivational speaker with more than 30 years of experience in TV, radio and newspaper.

In the year 2000, Teresa left the secular media to start her own speaking and communications company. Teresa’s daily morning radio program, Catholic Connection, is produced by Ave Maria Radio in Ann Arbor, Michigan and now heard on over 170 Catholic stations nationwide through the EWTN Global Catholic Radio Network. Her talk show is also carried on Sirius/XM Satellite Radio and local here in the Dallas-Ft Worth area on Guadalupe Radio.

Teresa is a columnist and special correspondent for the national Catholic newspaper, Our Sunday Visitor. She appears frequently on EWTN Catholic Television. Teresa and co-hosts the new EWTN program The Catholic View for Women. Teresa has also been featured on The O’Reilly Factor Fox News, Fox & Friends, and MSNBC discussing issues of faith and media awareness.

In 2008 Teresa was chosen as only one of 270 delegates from around the world to attend the Vatican Women’s Congress held in Rome marking the 20^th Anniversary of John Paul the Second’s Letter entitled On the Dignity and Vocation of Women.

As a speaker Teresa travels around the country addressing media awareness and activism, as well as sharing her reversion to the Catholic Church. Her latest book, Extreme Makeover: Women Transformed by Christ, Not Conformed to the Culture was just released in October of 2011 from Ignatius Press. Her first book, Noise: How Our Media Saturated Culture Dominates Lives and Dismantles Families, is published by Ascension Press and is a Catholic best seller. Her second book, Newsflash! My Surprising Journey from Secular Anchor to Media Evangelist was published in September of 2008. Teresa has also co-authored a series of best selling Catholic books called All Things Girl for tween girls focusing on modesty and chastity.

My first exposure to twisted sexuality was at a baseball game when I was about three. Skilled at making scenes, I stood up, pointed at a billboard in the distance, and loudly demanded, “WHAT’S A HOOTER?” The crowd around us went silent and awaited my father’s answer. He paused and, then, explained that a hooter was an owl. The crowd was endeared to us and laughed.

And so my journey began.

At a very young age, I wanted to understand why a girl in my kindergarten class didn’t have a father, why so many only saw their fathers on weekends, why movies were rated R and why nobody in the third grade really could explain what sex was, but everyone wanted to know. As I grew, I connected much of the unbalanced and confused culture I saw around me to our misconceptions of sexuality—our misconceptions of what it means to be a woman or a man—of what it means to be a human being.

I am Elizabeth Hanna. I am twenty-one years old, about to graduate from the University of Georgia in December and getting married in May to the best person I know. I have wonderful parents, a wonderful family, and the coolest three-legged dog named Wolfgang. I love to write, I love music and art, I love animals and nature, and I love Christmas. I can’t wait to grow up and grow old with my new husband, to start a family, and to explore this beautiful world with him.

I look forward to writing for New Feminism and I look forward to learning from the other women on this site. I am young, I am idealistic, and perhaps sometimes a bit too eager. But I hope to share some of my understanding and experience as a young woman in today’s culture, that in turn we may work together to address our uniquely feminine needs, and the needs of the world around us. And I hope to learn more about what it means to be a human being as I grow up and into the lovely castle of womanhood.

I grew up in what one would call the post-sexual revolution age. But I would say I grew up in the second sexual revolution. The rebellion of the first remained largely within its own culture subset. Outside of rock and roll and beyond the university campuses, there still existed a greater majority that held their ground and condemned the whole phenomenon.

In this second sexual revolution, the children of the first have grown up and raised children of their own. My peers and I grew up in a world where the majority and even the authority rarely had substantial and sincere standards of what was to be done with this enormous elephant standing in the room of life. The first sexual revolution prompted us to question our cultural norms regarding gender and sexuality (the questioning being a healthy enterprise in and of itself.) But we now merely have new norms—norms that are very hard to resist, and very hard to stand up against—and norms that are most clearly destructive. The new standard indeed, is that there is no standard. Your sexuality, your gender, is whatever you want it to be, whatever you feel like, whenever you want.

So many of my peers grew up to throw away what they held dear, acting as they were taught by music videos and their parents’ implications, and wondering what in the world to do with their deep aching and longing for true companionship, true identity, and true love. Too many children were never taught the value of self-discipline and sacrifice with regard to their sexuality. And if they were, they were never really taught why such restraint was worth it.

And the worst part of it all, the part that distinguishes us most from generations past, is that before, parents and grandparents, preachers and teachers—they still stood for an uncompromisable morality, and they held the younger people accountable. But now, too many of my peers are afraid to go against our cultural norms because even their own parents would laugh at them. This cycle needs to be addressed and it needs to be reversed. We need to clearly establish for the next generations what it means to be a woman, what it means to be a man, and it what it means to be a human being. Because people want to know.

We need another revolution.

I was happy to receive Marjorie Campbell’s kind invitation to join her team here at New Feminism. Marjorie and I have been meeting, thinking, and discussing many things as it relates to our bodies, our ability to procreate, and the impact that feminism has had in shaping the landscape for where we find ourselves today. Our conversations have been very helpful to me as we have some shared experiences in our past; old guard feminists looking to rethink the statement ‘you’ve come along way baby’, spiritual wanderers (rebels) who have found rest again in our faith, feeling we are at a time in our life when we were ready to spread our wings and embrace a new season in life, a new calling if you will. So, in this spirit of camaraderie, I will be writing here, mainly addressing things around infertility and reproductive ethics and technologies, although I have many interests in the whole field of bioethics, as I have my master’s degree in bioethics.

My personal interest in matters on infertility, assisted reproductive technologies, and modern day baby-making, has been shaped by many and my voice comes from many rich experiences in my life. I am first a woman with a keen interest in our bodies and health. I am a wife and a mother, so my thoughts have been impacted by what I have tried to live and teach at home. I spent 25 years working as a nurse, and am committed to patient advocacy; informed consent, evidenced-based medicine and medical ethics rooted in the ancient Hippocratic tradition—first, do no harm. The Georgetown mantra of beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy and justice have no meaning if not rooted in a principle that recognizes the dignity and worth of every individual.

I came into the area of reproductive technologies through a sort of backdoor way. Living and working in California, I found myself entering the field of bioethics at the height of the embryonic stem cell and human cloning wars. How was it that we came to be debating over a half a million surplus frozen embryos in the United States? Why and when did the human embryo become such a prize to the stem cell researcher? It was through digging into these questions that I really uncovered the fertility industry and how uncritically we had accepted these technologies which allowed Louise Brown, the first “test-tube” baby, to be born, in order to help Mr. and Mrs. Brown have a baby. Through my writing and speaking, people began to find me – thanks to the internet and Facebook. They told me their stories which led me to make films. Three at this point and counting! First, I made Lines That Divide: The Great Stem Cell Debate. Then I made Eggsploitation, which won best documentary in the California Independent Film Festival in 2011 and in December of 2011, I released Anonymous Father’s Day which tells the stories of children, now adults, who were created via anonymous sperm donation. These films have had a big impact on engaging the public in conversation. While I have briefed legislators on Capitol Hill and at the state level, and testified at the European Parliament at Brussels on Human Egg Trafficking, I have found that through film, telling authentic and real people’s stories, I have been able to change people’s attitudes and thinking. Like the young woman at Loyola-Marymount who came up to me after watching Eggsploitation and said, I’m so glad I came tonight, I was just about to sell my eggs to pay my graduate school tuition. Infertility is nothing new. It has been with us since the beginning of time. I understand the heartache of the barren womb, as we recall Rachel crying out to God, “Give me children, lest I die”. What is new, however are these modern day technologies which seek to address the barren womb and make baby-making available to all (is 50 the new 30 for motherhood?) So, maybe with all of these new technologies, it is time for a New Feminism. I’ve always said, women (me included) have a unique role in pointing us in the right direction. For such a time as this, I’m here to do my part.

I’m in a rather unique position since I am the only male asked to take part in this adventure into New Feminism. I am not the only male who is involved with New Feminism – after all, the term New Feminism has developed out of Pope John Paul II’s Letter to Women. As New Feminism encourages respect for the feminine and the feminine voice, it is important for the movement to do just that, but it is also invaluable to have voices like mine join in so as to show the movement is one of universal value and importance. It was for this reason I quickly accepted the invitation to take part, and hope that what I provide will help show the universal value of New Feminism by showing the historical precedents which have helped shape where we are today and where we can find ourselves in the future.

I am a single male, Byzantine Catholic, PhD Candidate in Historical and Systematic Theology (hopefully, nearing completion). I was not always a Catholic – I was chrismated (confirmed) on Pascha (Easter) of 1995. I was raised a Baptist, though in a family which was very spiritually independent and did not go to church services often in my youth. I was raised to have a strong personal devotion to the Christian faith – indeed, I was dedicated to God by my mother as I was born, because the doctors had told her she wouldn’t be able to have more children after my sister was born, and she was thankful the doctors were wrong. This dedication, I am sure, especially by such a loving and caring mother which I have, has been the spiritual glue which has kept me sane.

It is through my theological and historical studies that I have come to New Feminism and it is these studies which I hope to bring forward here. Intellectually, I have found myself shaped through a wide range of sources, including, and not limited to, Pope John Paul II, St. Edith Stein, Hans Urs von Balthasar with Adrienne von Speyr, Vladimir Solovyov, Sergius Bulgakov, and Paul Evdokimov. As a Byzantine Catholic, I have a great interest in exploring and developing insights from the East but also from the West, and find that this interest in bringing the “two lungs” together is similar to the interest and desire to help bring about the mutual promotion of the masculine and the feminine which comes from New Feminism.

I have seen, first hand, the great feminine genius speaking through spiritual giants such as Hildegard von Bingen (who might soon be recognized as a Doctor of the Church), St. Teresa of Avila, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Bridget of Sweden, and St. Edith Stein. I have seen the work of and promotion of great women like St Macrina, St Monica, St Helen, St Olga, St. Clare of Assisi, New Martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth, and Dorothy Day. All of them demonstrate something of the glory of the feminine, and have helped provide proof of the need for the feminine voice in the world; we would, as Christians, find ourselves greatly diminished if such voices had no impact in the development of Christian thought and action in the world, just as I would be much poorer for it as well.

What I will be writing on here will come from my explorations in the history and development of theology, relating historical or theological ideas to New Feminism. In doing this, sometimes what will be brought forward will need some contextualization: a person who has done some good or promoted a good idea which touches upon an issue and concern of a New Feminist might not be easily understood as such until we see it in its proper context. What is good at a certain time and date, what was a step forward, could be seen today as a step backwards from where we are at today, and so this is why it will be necessary to remember that, when dealing with history, things will be messy and uneven, especially in regards to the respect due for the feminine.

I hope people will enjoy what I have planned. I think there will be some surprises along the way.

FFL President Serrin M. Foster has led Feminists for Life of America since 1994. Under her leadership, FFL successfully advocated benefits for poor and pregnant women through the State Child Health Insurance Program, worked in coalition with other women’s organizations to defeat the mandatory “family cap” and other punitive child exclusion provisions in welfare reform, and helped to prevent poverty and coerced abortions due to threats to withhold child support through passage of the Enhanced Child Support Act.

Serrin served on the National Taskforce Against Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence, which worked to pass the Violence Against Women Act, and she also testified before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee in support of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, also known as “Laci and Conner’s Law.”

The creator of the Women Deserve Better® campaign has been an outspoken opponent of pregnancy discrimination and has focused on developing on-campus resources and support for underserved pregnant and parenting students.

In January 1997, Serrin moderated the first-ever FFL Pregnancy Resource ForumSM at Georgetown University, which became a model for the country and in 2010 became the basis for Pregnancy Assistance Fund grants awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Serrin’s landmark speech, “The Feminist Case Against Abortion,” has been recognized as one of the “great speeches in history” in an anthology called Women’s Rights.

With this post, I am excited to launch the first ever New Feminism blog.  NewFeminism.co brings together a group of New Feminists – and you – to reflect on daily issues and current concerns. We offer unique, female-centered perspectives on cultural, social, political, medical and health issues affecting women.

Our perspectives as feminists vary significantly, but all of the writers here are fairly called “difference feminists.” Difference feminists believe that the feminine qualities of women offer a different, but profoundly equal, contribution to the human enterprise.  From womb to tomb, every human person needs the female in their lives – the authentic female – not a masculinized or sexualized “hipless, wombless, hard-titted Barbie.” (G. Greer)  Difference feminists also seek social, medical, reproductive and health solutions that strive to respect, not neutralize, the unique characteristics of the female body.

I am well suited to the task of bringing this blog to life. I spent 15 years as a “sameness feminist” – pursuing career objectives and sexual freedoms that mirrored my male counterparts from 1974-1989. I have a law degree from University of Virginia and practiced both criminal defense (with a focus on prostitution) and bankruptcy. I have taught at the law schools at the University of Cincinnati and at the University of the Pacific. I left compensated work in 1996 and have, since, studied Canon Law and written on a freelance basis.

I am a devoted wife and mother of three. My feminism has matured and developed in response to my family and my recognition that family relationships remain central to the lives of women who, too often, struggle with excessive demands to compromise that which they hold most dear. Writers influencing my thinking as a New Feminist include Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Deal Hudson, Kay Hymowitz, Wendy Shalit, Germaine Greer, Blessed John Paul II, Pia de Solenni, Camille Paglia, Susan Will and, perhaps most importantly, Erma Bombeck whose tender love of being a mother and wife restored my sense of humor.

You will notice that the writers featured here tackle issues and problems from a uniquely female perspective. We distinguish ourselves from feminists who tether women’s success and fulfillment to the same measures used by men. Equality, we believe, should not and does not eliminate differences that enrich and benefit all of humankind and contribute to the full realization of every woman’s potential. More, our view of medical and emotional health focuses on the female body and being as we exist, not as a burdened or encumbered variation of the male body.

The charter contributors to NewFeminism.co appear in the right column.  Each writer’s first post will be biographical and, once online, available as a link through the contributor’s name. 

Please do enjoy and participate. Use the comments section to react, opine and comment. Tell the writers and the readership of other issues of interest to you – and direct our attention to projects, writings, events and posts of import and impact. We have a liberal comments policy but ask everyone to be respectful in discussing differences and avoid personal attacks and judgmental language. We seek to set the standard for New Feminism – both in content and tone which reflect our uniquely feminine concern for connecting the whole of humanity in the challenging enterprise of living daily life.