Merle Hoffman - Honors & Awards

Honors & Awards

Hoffman was honored for her work by former NYC Mayor Ed Koch and the Department of Corrections of New York City (July 10, 1984); the NYC Chapter of National Organization for Women (NOW), Women of Vision Award, May 16, 1988; Friends of Animals/Eco-Visions Conference Award (May 16, 1988); National Victim's Center and National Crime Victims’ Rights Week Coalition, April 23, 1995; the Congress of Racial Equality (March 29, 1977), the Veteran Feminists of America, and others.

Hoffman's writing has appeared in numerous publications and journals including the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Journal of the American Medical Women's Association. Hoffman also published two studies in the 80s that documented how poverty leads many women to choose abortions and another that showed nearly half the women seeking abortion at CHOICES would pursue one illegally if Roe v. Wade were repealed. In 1990, she published an editorial in the Amsterdam News in response to the Central Park jogger rape case. She was awarded the Front Page Award in 2010 from the Newswomen's Club of New York for her article "Selecting the Same Sex" published in On The Issues.

When Operation Rescue announced it would shut down abortion services in New York City from April 30 to May 7, 1988, the NYPCC announced that week would be Reproductive Freedom Week. To kick things off, on April 29, 1988, the NYPCC organized a march for women's rights and reproductive freedom. About 1,300 activists and supporters marched from St. Patrick's Cathedral at Madison Avenue and 50th Street to the New York Right to Life Headquarters at 34th Street and 6th Avenue For the duration of Reproductive Freedom Week, the NYPCC organized clinic watches and phone trees, dispatching people to the clinics and doctor's offices Operation Rescue targeted, in an effort to keep them open.