A leader in the struggle for women’s rights

Choices: A Post-Roe Abortion Rights Manifesto
CHOICES A Post Roe Abortion Rights Manifesto

Choices: A Post-Roe Abortion Rights Manifesto

By Merle Hoffman

“Merle Hoffman has always known that in a democracy, we each have decision-making power over the fate of our own bodies. She is a national hero for us all.” ​—Gloria Steinem

In the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and a country divided, Merle Hoffman, a pioneer in the pro-choice movement and women’s healthcare, offers an unapologetic and authoritative take on abortion calling it “the front line and the bottom line of women’s freedom and liberty.”

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.

Work & Activism
CHOICES A Post Roe Abortion Rights Manifesto

Choices: A Post-Roe Abortion Rights Manifesto

In the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and a country divided, Merle Hoffman, a pioneer in the pro-choice movement and women’s healthcare, offers an unapologetic and authoritative take on abortion calling it “the front line and the bottom line of women’s freedom and liberty.”

Choices Women's Medical Center

A pioneer in women’s reproductive health care, Merle Hoffman established one of the first ambulatory abortion centers in the nation in 1971, Choices Women's Medical Center, shortly after New York State legalized abortion before the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision.

Choices Institute of Women's Health

The Choices Institute of Women’s Health was founded in 2015 to help address the global need for education and services relating to women’s and girls’ health, well-being, and ability to thrive and achieve their potential as full human beings.
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On The Issues Magazine

Merle Hoffman is the publisher of On the Issues Magazine, which began as a print publication in 1983 and went online in 2008. It featured provocative interviews with pathbreaking leaders in the feminist, civil and human rights and environmental movements, among other articles.
Intimate Wars

Intimate Wars

Merle Hoffman’s memoir, Intimate Wars: The Life and Times of the Woman Who Brought Abortion from the Back Alley to the Boardroom, was published in 2012 by Feminist Press. Publishers Weekly opined that “she eloquently chronicles more than three decades of struggles to keep abortion legal. Readers will learn much about her drive to recast ‘reproductive freedom as a positive moral value.'”
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Choices East

In 1994 when Hoffman learned about the lack of birth control options available to women in Russia, she began working with Russian hospitals and doctors to develop CHOICES EAST, the first feminist outpatient medical center in Russia.
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Archives & Manuscripts

The papers of Merle Hoffman span the years from about 1944 to 2001, with most of the papers dating between 1961 and 2001. The collection is arranged in the following series: Choices, On the Issues, Personal Files, Photographic Materials, and Audiovisual Materials.
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Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights

In January 2022, when the US Supreme Court indicated it was on track to overturn Roe v Wade, Hoffman co-initiated Rise Up For Abortion Rights (RU4AR) with Sunsara Taylor and Lori Sokol. RU4AR called for and organized massive nationwide protests in the streets to prevent abortion from being outlawed, under the slogan “Abortion on Demand and Without Apology.”