Merle Hoffman discussing her new book, CHOICES – A Post-Roe Abortion Rights Manifesto at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe (NY) on January 22nd. Photo credit: Alex Purdy
“Planting a lot of Seeds in Some Good Soil”
Merle Hoffman talks about her new book, CHOICES – A Post-Roe Abortion Rights Manifesto – and what’s happening on her book tour.
You wrote your first book, Intimate Wars, The Life and Times of the Woman Who Brought Abortion from the Back Alley to the Boardroom, in 2012. More than 12 years later, what made you decide to write CHOICES?
MH – Writing another book really hadn’t been on my mind at that point, being so busy after the fall of Roe and dealing with the devastating results of the Dobbs decision. I was inundated with so many patient issues at Choices, as well as dealing with the political fallout, but a friend suggested it would be important to write about what’s going on, on the front lines. I began to think about how critical it was to not only document what this situation meant for Choices, for patients, for democracy, and for everything I have envisioned and worked for over half a century.
As you know, I began this work in 1971, before Roe and just after New York State legalized abortion. My first patient, Helen, came from New Jersey where abortion was still illegal. Now, with abortion again illegal in many states, I am seeing patients come to Choices from all over the country. It’s as if the last 50 years of legal abortion never happened.
It also came to me that the book needed to be a manifesto. After looking at the egregious and enormous damage/s of Dobbs, you ask yourself what needs to be done to stop this madness. Because I’ve thought so much about resisting the powers-that-be, not only for Choices but all the clinics and providers, I look at this in the context of what we need to do to change the reality on the ground now. What we have to do to be resisters. What are our goals, the goals of the movement and how do we get there.
Diane L. Rosenfeld, Lecturer on Law, Director, Gender Violence Program, Harvard Law School (left) and Merle during book tour stop at Harvard Law School.
Your tour has already taken you to colleges and universities, including Harvard Law, Columbia, Smith and others, high schools, and bookstores. How did your audiences respond?
MH – What I found across the board was an enormous lack of knowledge and little if no awareness of the history of the reproductive rights movement. For example, the only student who said she knew what the Hyde Amendment was at all of my events so far has been a 17-year-old at a private girls high school in NYC.
There may be a concern about reproductive rights, reproductive justice, and a sense that the Dobbs decision is very bad. But that’s it. As part of my presentation I asked, “what does the word ‘abortion’ mean to you?” Sort of a free association exercise. People said a lot of things, abortion clinics, equal rights amendment, etc. But very few said anything about abortion being a basic human right, essential for a woman’s fundamental ability to fully function as a human being and as a citizen of this country.
It is important to understand that legal abortion is the vehicle that women must access in order to be full citizens. Without the right to determine when and whether to be a mother, to parent, women and girls are second class citizens of this country.
I asked if they’d talked to anyone about abortion. Few had. I shared that this is an important part of normalizing the issue – and if they got into the subject with family and friends they often would find someone they know who had an abortion. I encouraged them to work on what I call the enemy’s “outposts in our heads,” that is, the stigma and consistent shame that the anti-abortion opposition has been so effective in implanting and implementing.
Roxane Gay, a writer and professor at Rutgers University whose class I spoke at, asked at one point why previous protests had not stopped attacks on abortion, and I explained, as the Rutgers daily newspaper reported, that there is an enduring shame around abortion, and the women’s movement does not garner a lot of attention. But I do support large-scale demonstrations.
Merle talking to students at The New School (NY) on March 21st.
Did you have a chance to talk to people informally?
MH – The only opportunity I had was during the book signings where I could engage for a few minutes with the students. Many young people thanked me for coming and told me, “you have done this for so long and are such a role model.”
It struck me how important it was to be a role model, an example of what it takes to commit yourself to a cause, to be so persistent in this struggle, especially having been pushed as far back as we are now. Students asked how they could get involved and if they could volunteer at Choices, and, in fact, we already have a few who have made commitments to intern at Choices.
It is a very long struggle – you can’t win by pressing a button on your computer. It’s what the women’s rights pioneer and a dear friend, Flo Kennedy, always told me: “You’ve got to love the struggle!” This is a generational struggle, and it will go on far past our lifetimes.
Our goal can be nothing less than legal, safe abortion without restrictions or borders. And we have to come to the conclusion that you can’t rely on politicians or the law to save us. “Who’s going to save us?” I asked at events. I looked around, and I answered it: “Ourselves. We have to do it for ourselves.” We have to act and practice courage because that is what it is going to take to make any difference at all.
Overall, I’ll say there was a wide-eyed, positive, energized response. Minds were working. Like when Flo Kennedy expanded my mind years ago and planted a seed. My book and this book tour are planting a lot of seeds in some good soil. And that’s what I wrote this book to do.
Join Merle At One Of Her Upcoming Events
- Tuesday, April 30th — Loyalty Books — Washington, DC — 7:00PM (EST)
- Wednesday, May 15th — New York State Assembly — Albany, NY
Explore Merle's Past Book Tour Events
After receiving copies of CHOICES and being inspired by Merle’s remarks and passion, many students have signed up to volunteer escort and intern at CHOICES.
Merle at Columbia on February 28th
Merle & Smith College students
Merle & Roxane Gay at Rutgers on April 2nd
