The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) and the City of New York have each filed Amicus Curiae briefs in support of the NY Attorney General’s case that is currently on appeal.

Merle Hoffman is featured in “Abortion, a new American cultural war,” an article in the French-language Epaper Le Temps in Switzerland. It’s the latest of several publications abroad to feature articles where Choices is featured.

As reported by the Global Fund for Women, "The Trump administration is exporting these anti-choice measures with the global gag rule. The global gag rule prohibits organizations from receiving funding from the U.S. government if they provide  services, referrals, and advocacy related to abortion internationally – even with non-U.S. government financing.

Women make up just over half of the 35 million people living with HIV worldwide, and the virus is the leading cause of death among women of reproductive age. This has devastating implications for huge communities of people worldwide.

Fifty years ago on June 28, 1969, patrons at the Stonewall Inn, a gay club in Greenwich Village, NYC, made history when they fought back against a police raid, beginning six days of protests against rampant harassment and discrimination.

The act of abortion positions women at their most powerful, and that is why it is so strongly opposed by many in society. Historically viewed and conditioned to be passive, dependent creatures, and victims of biological circumstance, women assume the power over life and death with the choice of abortion—it is THEY who decide when and whether to bring new life into the world.

Statistics often put people to sleep. But any one of the new laws should be enough to cause waking nightmares for everyone concerned about women’s lives. Here are only a few: At least 15 states this year have introduced laws to ban abortion after a fetal heartbeat has been detected. Fetal heartbeats generally develop about six weeks into a pregnancy – before many women even know they are pregnant. These laws, therefore, would amount to a near total abortion ban. […]

Women are crossing state lines again to come to Choices for safe and legal abortions that they cannot get elsewhere – And we welcome all of them! - Merle Hoffman, Founder/President Choices Women’s Medical Center

Women’s History Month is a good time to discuss and address the difficulties of being female in a diversity of societies in the world today. The World Health Organization has done just that in a report on Gender Disparities and Mental Health.

In 1987, March was officially declared Women’s History Month in the USA. With the attacks piling upon abortion and on women’s very right to a life of her own choosing and in some cases on her very life itself, it’s no time for feel-good  pats-on-the-back or congratulatory high-fives.  Read the rest of this newsletter to find out more. And let’s pay tribute to the brave marchers of 1908 by heeding their example and getting ready to pick up the pace of struggle.