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Choices Women’s Medical Center
Merle Hoffman founded Choices Women’s Medical Center in 1971, shortly after New York State made abortion legal and two years before the historic Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide. Since then, Choices, under Merle’s active direction, has expanded from its pioneering and continuing abortion services to meet the full reproductive needs of the many communities it serves.
This includes comprehensive gynecological services, a full prenatal program, and specialized care for LGBTQ and gender-nonconforming, people, teens and seniors. These programs include Counseling and HIV/STD Testing and Treatment and basic preventive care.
Health education is an integral and important part of our mission, and Choices offers no-cost classes and workshops to public and private schools, community, and health organizations. To promote women’s health in the United States and abroad, Merle Hoffman founded the Choices Global Institute of Healing and Education, a charitable organization that raises public awareness about women’s health issues and provides support to underserved women and their families.
The name, “Choices,” stands for Creative Health Organization for Information, Counseling and Educational Services, and for more than 50 years it has proven to be just that.
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.”