Learn why writing from experience and empathy are such powerful tools in defending reproductive rights with activist and author Merle Hoffman.
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Merle Hoffman
(she/her) Guest/Teaching Artist
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.