Intimate Wars

by Merle Hoffman

  One day when I stopped to chat with her outside the clinic, I shared with Sister Dorothy how much I loved being a mother. She smiled. “I am sure you are a good mother. But you would be a better one if you stopped killing all those little Sashas in there.”

  At that moment I was filled with absolute certainty of the one true thing I knew: that there were women and girls who were waiting for my help that day and for the foreseeable future, and that this war to stop me and others from doing that would never end in my lifetime. I was grateful to play my part and I had learned to love the struggle.

  Sasha took my hand. Together we turned and walked into Choices.

  Acknowledgments

  MY FIRST THANKS go to three women deeply loved and so recently lost: Ruth Hoffman (1917–2008), Mahin Hassibi (1937–2009), and Cynthia Colquitt-Craven (1941–2009). Vividly present by their absence, they infused my creative process with demands for clarity and truth.

  My deepest appreciation to family and friends whose love, support, and just being there have been invaluable to me: Michael Dubow, for being a loving anchor and wise counsel; Diane Dubow, for gently accepting our differences; Jackie Rovine, for her ambition and psychological courage; Lisa Norton, for her empathy and reinforcement; Carolee Lucenti, for always laughing and forgiving; Linda Stein, for her vision and love; Vaughna Feary, for her wisdom and guidance; Andrea Peyser, for her wit and solidarity; Bill Baird, for sharing the front lines and lifelong support; and Stanley Rustin, for being the psychological bookends of my life—my trusted, loving witness.

  I want to express my gratitude to my staff at Choices, the doctors, nurses, and administration who have made it possible not only to do the work we do but also to survive and write about it. Thanks especially to Dr. Lorna Aguilos, for her loyalty, persistence, and belief in the mission; to Carmine Asparro, for being an ally, friend, and guru through the most difficult of times; and to Annette Farrell, for sharing the growth, struggles, and triumphs of Choices for so many years and coming back for more.

  This book is also an offering to my patients. The work, the mission, and this book would never have been possible without the thousands and thousands of women and girls who have come to Choices through all the years in trust and hope. Their persistence and dignity in the face of obstacles, violence, and harassment are a testament to their courage. Quiet heroines all, it is a privilege and a gift to have spent my life serving them.

  Much appreciation goes to all the writers, activists, and editors at On the Issues Magazine, who have assisted me in creating the voice of a visionary, progressive feminism—particularly my extraordinary editor Cindy Cooper who shares my passion for reproductive justice; Mark Phillips, for his creative and technological brilliance; Mary Lou Greenberg, for always being there with me on the front and written lines in the struggle for abortion rights; and to Vanessa Valenti, my social marketing guru.

  Particular thanks to Jennifer Baumgardner, for being able to share the struggles of the movement, the joy of our children, and for creating the initial outline for this book. My first editor, reader, and longtime ally, she was instrumental in bringing this book to life.

  Special thanks to my archivist Laura Micham at the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture at Duke University, for her consistent public support of my work. Her assistance with the research for this project has been invaluable.

  My deep appreciation to Florence Howe for her pioneering vision in creating the Feminist Press. My book could not have found a better home. Many thanks to executive director Gloria Jacobs for strongly believing in this project and having the courage to use the A word. Much gratitude and admiration to my dear friend Blanche Wiesen Cook for her long friendship and early consistent support for this project.

  This book would not be possible without the creative political intelligence, razor-sharp instincts, and feel for my particular literary rhythm of Feminist Press editorial director Amy Scholder—it has been a rare privilege working with her. Thanks also to the staff of the Feminist Press, Drew Stevens, Sophie Hagen, Jeanann Pannasch, and Elizabeth Koke for their assistance in this process.

  And special, deep, and enduring appreciation to Theresa Noll, my editor who worked intimately with me for two years helping craft a form and narrative arc onto the whirlwind of my life. She was a gentle navigator, drawing me into my past and away from my own resistance.

  And of course eternal gratitude to my daughter Sasharina —North Star of my autumn, who is forever challenging and delighting me.

  And finally to Elizabeth Tudor (a.k.a. Queen Elizabeth I of England), for serving as my imaginary companion and role model for as long as I can remember.

  Notes

  1 Lizza, “The Abortion Capital of America.”

  2 Carole Joffe’s Doctors of Conscience: The Struggle to Provide Abortion Before and After Roe v. Wade is an excellent account of doctors who risked everything to help women in need.

  3 See Hoffman, “Isn’t It Enough To Make You Scream?”

  4 Patient Power, which planted the seeds of the medical consumer movement, was far in advance of its time. It has taken years for the notion that patients have rights to take root in public consciousness, much less law, but recently that has begun to change. Second opinions have become generalized, alternative treatments are available, there are multiple patient advocacy groups, and doctors are rated on the Internet according to patient criteria. The New York State Department of Health has a set of guidelines called the “Patient Bill of Rights” requiring medical facilities to establish policies regarding the rights of patients and ensuring that all patients are informed of their rights and responsibilities. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) requirements protect patient privacy. The Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry was formed in 1997 to “advise the president on changes occurring in the health care system and recommend measures as may be necessary to promote and assure health care quality and value, and protect consumers and workers in the health care system.” As part of its work, Clinton asked the Commission to draft a “consumer bill of rights” (see “Consumer Bill of Rights and Responsibilities”). And in June of 2010 the Obama administration released the “Fact Sheet: The Affordable Care Act’s New Patient’s Bill of Rights” to help Americans navigate their health care coverage (“The Obama Administration’s New ‘Patient’s Bill Of Rights’”). In the case of doctors being gods, one could definitely make the argument that this particular god is dead.

  5 Not long after, Rosie Jimenez, a twenty-seven-year-old single mother too poor to pay for the procedure at a private clinic, had an illegal and unsafe abortion. She became the first of many women to die as a result of the Hyde Amendment. At a 1979 meeting held by abortion rights leaders Gloria Steinem, Karen Mulhauser of NARAL, and Uta Landy of NAF, Ellen Frankfort, coauthor of Rosie: Investigation of a Wrongful Death, announced the formation of the Rosie Jimenez Fund, the first to provide direct subsidy for women seeking abortions without sufficient funds to pay for one.

  6 As of today, there are only four states that voluntarily provide Medicaid funding for abortions.

  7 This eventually became a double-edged sword as the state began to use the system of regulation and licensing to control and eliminate providers through TRAP laws (see chapter nine).

  8 I went on to hold a second panel on women’s health in 1976. This one was sponsored by the Medical Group Council (Marty was the chairman) and titled “‘Challeng-ing the Medical Mystique’: How Can Consumers Influence the Health Care Delivery System?” May Lasker, Philip Strax, and Congressman Leo Zeferetti were participants.

  9 Menstrual extraction is a method of self-help abortion that was developed and implemented by Lorraine Rothman and Carol Downer at the Feminist Women’s Health Center in 1971. It is a manually-operated suction technique using tubes and syringe that can be performed by lay people without medical expertise. Rothman and Downer called the technique ME to emphasize its innocuous use in
suctioning out menstrual blood and tissue. ME was also considered an important tactical weapon in the abortion wars; if Roe were ever overturned, or states started to substantially restrict access, women would still be able to control their fertility.

  10 Ross, “Abortion: Six Years After the Supreme Court Decision, The Conflict Rages On.”

  11 Bellotti v. Baird was argued twice and ruled on after its 1979 hearing. The case involved a Massachusetts law that required minor girls seeking abortions to first obtain the consent of their parents, or a court order waiving that consent. The court’s eight-to-one decision in 1979 affirmed its previous ruling in Danforth, invalidating all state laws that require all minor girls to obtain their parents’ consent before getting an abortion. It gave states latitude to establish procedures to determine whether a girl is mature enough to make the decision. But it held that a pregnant minor is “entitled in such a proceeding to show either that she is mature enough and well enough informed to make her abortion decision, in consultation with her physician, independently of her parents’ wishes,” or that the abortion would be in her “best interest.”

  12 FDA studies from the early eighties showed that of one hundred women who use aerosol foam alone, two to twenty-nine became pregnant in the first year; of those who used jellies and cream alone, four to thirty-six became pregnant.... When compared to the pill (two to three out of one hundred users became pregnant in a year), IUD (one to six) and the diaphragm (two to twenty, depending on proper use), the nonprescription spermicides seemed much less effective. (See Hoffman, “Birth Control: The Last Market That Needs Misleading Ads.”)

  13 See Frances Kissling, “If War is ‘Just’, So is Abortion.” Also see Judith Jarvis Thomson’s famous philosophical tract A Defense of Abortion (1971).

  14 Erlanger, “A Widening Pattern of Abuse Exemplified in Steinberg Case.”

  15 Faludi, Backlash.

  16 Members included CARASA, Catholics for a Free Choice, Choices, NYS-NARAL, NOW-NYC, Planned Parenthood-NYC, Radical Women, Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights, the Women’s Quarterly Review, Hunter College, the Puerto Rican Committee Against Racism, the Local 3882 AFT Organization of Asian Women, and Princeton University. Among many others, the individual members included Charlotte Bunch, Rhonda Copelon, Kate Millett, Grace Paley, Phyllis Chesler, Bella Abzug, and Ruth Messinger.

  17 Benderly, “Feminists Fight Fundamentalist “Fetus Fetish”.

  18 Ibid.

  19 See Shelley, “A Sacrificial Light, Self-Immolation in Tajrish Square, Tehran,” for more on this subject.

  20 Robin Morgan later hit this nail on the head with her book Sisterhood Is Global: The International Women’s Movement Anthology.

  21 Recipients of Diana Foundation grants included Andrea Dworkin, for her book Scapegoat; NOW of New York City; The House of Elder Artists (THEA); Community Health Care Network; Phyllis Chesler; and Edna Adan Ismail, director and founder of the Edna Adan University Hospital in Hargeisa and president of the Organization for Victims of Torture.

  22 Karl Marx, from “Critique of the Gotha Program.”

  23 Patrick Buchanan, one of the Republican candidates for President, told four hundred people at a New Jersey right-to-life convention that “the empire we are fighting is every bit the evil empire the Soviet Union was” (see Hoffman, “Abortion Providers: The New ‘Communists,’” in On the Issues).

  24 I first met Norma McCorvey at the second national Pro-Choice March on Washington in 1989. She greeted me with a wan smile as activist lawyer Gloria Allred introduced her first as Norma McCorvey and then as “you know, Jane Roe.”

  25 The New York Times, January 11, 1999: “GOLD-Martin, M.D., 80 years old, died the kind of death, in Fort Lau-derdale, Florida, on January 9, 1999, that he had always termed a ‘blessing’—one that came quickly and without great suffering. The lessons of his life can be measured by his achievements in the medical world and the gifts of loving compassion and generosity that he shared with all who knew him. As a physician, he practiced the art as well as the science of medicine, and his patients loved him for it. As a mentor, he inspired many young professionals to move beyond their limitations and live their dreams. As a man, he was honorable, honest, loving, witty, and kind. He will be deeply missed and very fondly remembered by his loving wife, Merle Hoffman . . .”

  Works Cited

  A complete archive of Merle Hoffman’s On the Issues magazine editorials and interviews, as well as her writing on current feminist topics, can be found at ontheissuesmagazine .com. See merlehoffman.com for further resources on Merle’s life and activism.

  Advancing New Standards In Reproductive Health. 2010. Fetal pain, analgesia, and anesthesia in the context of abortion . ANSIRH, June. http://www.ansirh.org/_documents/research/late-abortion/FetalPain.FactSheet.6-2010.pdf

  Baird-Windle, Patricia and Eleanor Bader. 2001. Targets of Hatred: Anti-Abortion Terrorism. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

  Benderly, Jill. 1986. “Feminists Fight Fundamentalist ‘Fetus Fetish.’” New York Guardian, February 5.

  Branch, Alan. 2004. “Radical Feminism and Abortion Rights: A Brief Summary and Critique.” JBMW 9, no. 2 (Fall).

  Epstein, Richard A. 1993. “Life’s Dominion: An Argument About Abortion, Euthanasia, and Individual Freedom.” Reason, November 1. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-14527043.html

  Erlanger, Steven. 1987. “A Widening Pattern of Abuse Exemplified in Steinberg Case.” New York Times, November 8.

  Faludi, Susan. 1992. Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women. New York: Anchor.

  Fine, Terri Susan. 2006. “Generations, Feminist Beliefs and Abortion Rights Support.” Journal of International Women’s Studies 7, no. 4 (May). http://facta.junis.ni.ac.rs/lal/lal2009/lal2009-12.pdf

  Gowaty, Patricia Adair, ed. 1997. Feminism and Evolutionary Biology: Boundaries, Intersections, and Frontiers. New York: Chapman & Hall.

  Grimes, David A. 1991. “An Epidemic of Antiabortion Violence in the United States.” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 165, no. 5 (November).

  Guttmacher Institute. 2006. “Abortion and Unintended Pregnancy Decline Worldwide as Contraceptive Use Increases.” Media release. http://www.guttmacher.org/media/nr/2009/10/13/index.html

  Hern, Warren M., MD. 1972. “The Politics Of Abortion.” The Progressive 36, no. 11 (November).

  Hewson, Barbara. 2004. “Is It Murder To Refuse A Caesarean?” AIMS Journal 16, no. 1 (Spring). http://www.aims.org.uk/Journal/Vol16No1/murderToRefuse.htm

  Hoffman, Amy. 2001. “A Conversation With Abortion Rights Activist Merle Hoffman.” Wellesley Review.

  Hoffman, Merle. 1982. “Birth Control: The Last Market That Needs Misleading Ads.” Los Angeles Times, August 29.

  ———. 1985. “Feminism, Power, Politics, Abortion.” Journal of The American Medical Women’s Association 40, no. 6 (November/December).

  Joffe, Carole E. 1995. Doctors of Conscience: The Struggle to Provide Abortion Before and After Roe v. Wade. Boston: Beacon Press.

  Kissling, Frances. 1991. “If War Is ‘Just’, So Is Abortion.” Los Angeles Times, April 17.

  Lee, Clara N., and John M. Daly. 2002. “Provider Volume and Clinical Outcomes in Surgery: Issues and Implications.” Bulletin of the American College of Surgeons 86, no. 6 (June).

  Lewin, Tamar. 1995. “A New Weapon in an Old War—A Special Report; Latest Tactic Against Abortion: Accusing Doctors of Malpractice.” New York Times, April 9.

  Lizza, Ryan. 2005. “The Abortion Capital of America.” New York Times Magazine, December 4.

  McKenna, George. 1995. “On Abortion: A Lincolnian Position.” Atlantic Monthly, September.

  Meikle, James. 2010. “Human Foetus Feels No Pain Before 24 Weeks, Study Says.” Guardian, June 25. http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jun/25/human-foetus-no-pain-24-weeks

  Morgan, Robin. 1996. Sisterhood Is Global: The International Women’s Movement Anthology. New York: The Feminist Press.

  Murray, Alice. 1981
. “A Survey On Abortion Finds Its Illegality Would Not Deter 45% Of Women.” Daily News, November 22.

  Pollitt, Katha. 1997. “Abortion in American History.” Atlantic Monthly, May. http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/97may/abortion.htm

  Pollitt, Katha. 1997. “Secrets And Lies.” Nation, March 31.

  Rich, Frank. 1997. “Partial-Truth Abortion.” New York Times, March 9.

  Ross, Barbara. 1979. “Abortion: Six Years After the Supreme Court Decision, the Conflict Rages On.” New York Post, February 13.

  Sarachild, Kathie, Carol Hanisch, Faye Levine, Barbara Leon, and Colette Price, eds. 1979. Feminist Revolution: An Abridged Edition With Additional Writings. New York: Random House.

  Shelley, Martha. 1994. “A Sacrificial Light: Self-Immolation in Tajrish Square, Tehran.” On the Issues, Fall.

  Smith-Rosenberg, Carroll. 1985. Disorderly Conduct: Visions of Gender in Victorian America. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

  Solinger, Rickie. 2001. Beggars and Choosers: How the Politics of Choice Shapes Adoption, Abortion, and Welfare in the United States. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

  Staggenborg, Suzanne. 1994. The Pro-Choice Movement: Organization and Activism in the Abortion Conflict. New York: Oxford University Press.

  Steinem, Gloria. 1990. “Sex, Lies, and Advertising.” Ms., July/ August.

  Turow, Joseph. 1989. Playing Doctor: Television, Storytelling, and Medical Power. New York: Oxford University Press.

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