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Reproductive Rights with Author and Activist Merle Hoffman
Friday, March 29
6-7:15 pm ET
virtual event; open to the public
including all mentees, mentors & alum
Join Girls Write Now for an important and timely Salon as a part of our celebration of Women’s History Month.
A central tenet of the women’s liberation movement is speaking and writing about common-but-silenced experiences like abortion. Writing and truth-telling has been and continues to be crucial in the fight for women’s full human rights.
Reproductive rights icon Merle Hoffman will discuss her work creating one of the nation’s first abortion clinics, the role of writing in that work, and why writing from experience and empathy are such powerful tools.
Meet the Guest Author
Merle Hoffman
Merle Hoffman (b. March 6, 1946) is an American author, activist, and feminist health care innovator who has been on the front lines of the reproductive rights movement since 1971, when she helped to establish one the first abortion clinics in the United States—two years before Roe v. Wade. She is the founder and CEO of CHOICES Women’s Medical Center in Jamaica, Queens, which provides abortions as well as prenatal care, all-options counseling, GYN visits, mental health services, and trans health services. The publisher and editor-in-chief of On the Issues magazine (1983–99) and the recipient of the 2009 Newswomen’s Club of New York Front Page Award, Hoffman is also the author of two books—Intimate Wars and CHOICES: A Post-Roe Abortion Rights Manifesto. The cofounder, with Frances Kissling, of the National Abortion Federation, Hoffman has organized crucial actions in the history of the reproductive rights movement and remains a crucial provider and activist in the post-Roe era.
Choices: A Post-Roe Abortion Rights Manifesto
In the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe V. Wade and a country divided, a pioneer in the pro-choice movement and women’s healthcare offers an unapologetic and authoritative take on abortion and women’s right to choose.Merle Hoffman has been at the forefront of the reproductive freedom movement since the 1970s. Three years before the Supreme Court legalized abortion through Roe v. Wade, she helped to establish one of the United States’ first abortion centers in Flushing, Queens, and later went on to found Choices, one of the nation’s largest and most comprehensive women’s medical facilities. For the last five decades, Hoffman has been a steadfast warrior and fierce advocate for every woman’s right to choose when and whether or not to be a mother.
Now, amidst the aftermath of the Dobbs Decision, Hoffman has carefully compiled her decades of analysis, research, and experience into a tour de force manifesto that sheds light on the catastrophic repercussions of overturning Roe, and what we must do moving forward to ensure the safety and legality of abortion nationally. In Choices, Hoffman expresses her views on where we are and what lies ahead. She covers topics ranging from: revamping the healthcare system to support women’s rights; combatting rising authoritarianism; the weaponization of religion; fighting the antis; practicing courage; sabotage from within the movement; and activating the next generation in the fight for reproductive justice.
This event is open to:
all mentees, all mentors, program alum and the public
