Intimate Wars

Activist Hoffman (publisher, OnTheIssues.org) has played a significant role on the front lines, making abortion and basic health care accessible to women in the United States. A chance job with a doctor who worked to set up one of the first legal abortion clinics in New York City introduced Hoffman to abortion services; she eventually became the executive director of the clinic (and the wife of the internist). The creation of the National Abortion Federation in 1977 provided her a national stage for advocacy; she later also undertook international work. The success of the first clinic generated resources that allowed Hoffman to open a larger facility in 1978 that served some 500 patients a week. She writes how the backlash of the 1980s and the violence and intimidation practiced by anti-abortion activists took its toll, but she maintained the clinic in the face of incessant harassment and continued to be a prominent advocate. Finally, at almost sixty, widowed, Hoffman fulfilled her desire to have a daughter; she writes of the process of adopting a three-year-old girl from Russia.