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CHOICES Institute of Women’s Health
CHOICES Institute of Women’s Health, formerly CHOICES Global Institute of Healing and Education, was founded by Merle Hoffman 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 fulfill their potential as full human beings. To this end, we support research and publishing projects, as well as develop, sponsor and promote educational efforts, services and programs both in the U.S.A. and internationally.
Through its community outreach programs, CGI develops projects to raise public awareness about women’s health issues and provide support to underserved women and their families. This includes the development of sexual health classes for women and men, from school age through the senior years. We work closely with community organizations, schools and women’s leadership programs on reproductive health issues, and sponsor classes and seminars, including on Birth Control and Healthy Relationships, free of charge. We also promote education projects that teach about sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV/AIDS.
Work & Activism
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.
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
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.'”
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.
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.
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.”