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About Us
ON THE ISSUES MAGAZINE ONLINE is a successor to the print publication, On The Issues Magazine, a progressive, feminist quarterly print publication from 1983 to 1999, both published by Choices Women’s Medical Center, Merle Hoffman, President and CEO, located in Long Island City, New York. For inquiries about On The Issues Magazine, contact managingeditor@ontheissuesmagazine.com |
Merle Hoffman, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, is an award winning Journalist, activist, political organizer and women's health care pioneer. She is the Founder, President and CEO of CHOICES Women’s Medical Center, one of the nation's largest and most comprehensive women's medical facilities.
In 2011 to 2012, Merle Hoffman celebrates the 40th Anniversary of Choices Women's Medical Center and the January 2012 publication of her memoirs:
The Life and Times of the Woman Who Brought Abortion from
the Back Alley to the Board Room
(published by Feminist Press)
AVAILABLE NOW from IntimateWars.com
Established in 1971 with a vision of patient empowerment through knowledge and education -- “Patient Power" -- Choices serves more than 50,000 patients a year. She also established Choices Mental Health Center which specialized in the treatment of rape incest and domestic violence. In an historic joint venture with the Yelstin Government she worked on developing the first feminist outpatient medical center in Russia as well as organizing Russian Feminists to deliver an open letter to Boris Yeltsin on the state of women's health care. As an activist and organizer, Hoffman was co-founder of the National Abortion Federation (NAF), founder of the New York Pro-Choice Coalition, and organized the first pro-choice civil disobedience action at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. She is a frequent media guest and speaker, including at the 1995 International Women’s Conference in Beijing. She co-produced the documentary film, “Abortion: A Different Light," and produced and hosted a thirty minute cable TV show entitled "MH: On The Issues." In 2002, she was appointed to the National Advisory Board of American Philosophical Practitioners Association. Her archives were acquired by Duke University in 2002 and are a major part of the Sally Bingham Center's women's History papers. Hoffman has been honored for her work by the Department of Corrections of New York City, National Organization for Women (NOW), Women's Health Care Services, Ecovisions, Community Action Network, the National Victim's Center, the Congress of Racial Equality, the Veteran Feminists of America, former NYC Mayor Ed Koch, and others. Hoffman writes frequently on topics related to women, politics and medical care, including for the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Journal of American Women's Associations, in addition to her groundbreaking interviews and editorials in On The Issues Magazine.
To contact: merle@ontheissuesmagazine.com
Cindy Cooper, Managing Editor, is an award-winning playwright, journalist and author. She writes frequently about women, justice and reproductive rights. Her articles have appeared in The Nation, Feminist Studies, In These Times, FAIR Extra!, Poz, Canadian Woman Studies, Women’s eNews, the National Law Journal, Ms. and elsewhere. Cooper’s plays have been produced off-Broadway and at dozens of theaters throughout the nation. A former practicing lawyer, she is the author of seven books, including the upcoming release Cheating Justice: How Bush and Cheney Broke the Rule of Law, Plotted to Avoid Prosecution and What We Can Do About It, co-authored with Elizabeth Holtzman, and which will be released by Beacon Press in February 2012.
To contact: managingeditor@ontheissuesmagazine.com
Sarah Browning, Co-Poetry Editor, is director of Split This Rock Poetry Festival: Poems of Provocation & Witness and DC Poets Against the War. She is the author of Whiskey in the Garden of Eden (The Word Works, 2007) and co-editor of D.C. Poets Against the War: An Anthology (Argonne House Press, 2004). The recipient of an artist fellowship from the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities, she has also received a Creative Communities Initiative grant and the People Before Profits Poetry Prize. She was founding director of Amherst Writers & Artists Institute - creative writing workshops for low-income women and youth - and Assistant Director of The Fund for Women Artists, an organization supporting socially-engaged art by women. She co-hosts the Sunday Kind of Love reading series at Busboys and Poets in Washington, DC, where she lives with her husband and son.
Judith Arcana, Co-Poetry Editor, writes poems, stories, essays and books; her work has been published widely for more than thirty years, in print and online. She’s the author of two classic motherhood studies, Our Mothers’ Daughters and Every Mother’s Son, as well as Grace Paley’s Life Stories, A Literary Biography and the recent poetry collection What if your mother. Judith is a frequent speaker and performer of her work at colleges, community events, libraries and bookstores. Her newest book is 4th Period English, a chapbook of poems about immigration and related themes – about which Alicia Ostriker has written: “Judith Arcana’s 4th Period English is so wonderful, I feel privileged to have read it, and I wish it were part of every curriculum starting right now…. This is absolutely terrific writing.” Visit her website juditharcana.com
To contact: Judith@ontheissuesmagazine.com
Mark D. Phillips, Technology and Creative Design Director, worked for over twenty years as a photojournalist, including for three newspapers and two major news services. In 1992, he won First Place awards for his Sports photography in the Pictures of the Year competition and First Place from the Baseball Hall of Fame while working for Agence France-Presse. In 1994, he and five photographers formed a company to combine traditional media and new technology. Later that year, he experimented with photo transmission while in South Africa covering Nelson Mandela’s election as the first black president. In 2001, as a witness to the World Trade Center attacks, he captured on camera an eerie image that came to be known as “Satan in the Smoke” and received enormous worldwide attention across the Internet. A Brooklyn resident, Phillips also operates SouthBrooklyn.net.
To contact: mark@ontheissuesmagazine.com
Linda Stein, Art Editor, is an artist-activist, lecturer, performer, and video artist. She has been creating sculpture that explores themes of protection and justice for the past three decades. The culmination of this sculptural exploration is Knights, a series that depicts the human body as armor. Stein’s solo exhibition, The Fluidity of Gender: Sculpture by Linda Stein, will be traveling the country through 2013, accompanied by her feminist lecture, The Chance to be Brave, The Courage to Dare. Stein is the Founding President of the non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation, Have Art: Will Travel! Inc. and V.P. of the Women’s Caucus for Art. Recently, her 7-foot bronze sculpture was placed at Portland State University in Oregon, and she is currently displaying an installation of five 8-foot windows in Downtown Crossing, Boston. Her work can also be seen on her blog, YouTube Vidoes, andwebsite, and her archives can be found at Smith College. The core of Stein’s work addresses issues of empowerment by focusing on the causes and effects of oppression -- specifically, sexism, racism and homophobia. To contact: LindaStein@ontheissuesmagazine.com
Eleanor Bader, Contributing Editor, teaches college English and journalism. She writes for The Brooklyn Rail, The Indypendent, Z Magazine, The Progressive, The L Magazine, RHRealityCheck.org and Library Journal. She is also an activist and the co-author of Targets of Hatred: Anti-Abortion Terrorism (Palgrave/St.Martin's Press, 2001).
Vanessa Valenti, Social Media and Editorial Consultant, is a feminist blogger and online strategist. She is the co-founder and an editor of Feministing.com and lives in Queens with a boy and their two cats. You can find more information about Vanessa and her work here.
Gabrielle Korn, Editorial Assistant, is an activist and a writer. A former Feminist Press intern, she is currently a coordinator at the Lesbian Herstory Archives and an organizer of the New York City Dyke March. She lives in Queens. To contact: gkorn@ontheissuesmagazine.com
CONTRIBUTORS TO "ABORTION"
Lori Adelman (Occupying the Waiting Room: 40 Years of Health Care Needs) is a writer and advocate living in Brooklyn, NY. She blogs at Feministing.com.
Eleanor J. Bader (Anti-Abortion Harassment and Violence Still Stifle Access) is a freelance writer, teacher and activist. She writes for The Brooklyn Rail, RHRealityCheck.org, The Progressive, Theasy.com, Truthout.org, and other progressive and feminist blogs and publications.
Jennifer Baumgardner (We're Not Sorry. Still.) is the author of "Abortion & Life," "Look Both Ways" and "F' em: Goo Goo, Gaga, and Some Thoughts on Balls."
Jasmine Burnett (Calling Black LGBTQ Institutions: Where Are You? Where is Reproductive Justice?) is a consultant and reproductive justice activist based in Brooklyn, NY. She is a founding member of the Trust Black Women partnership, a national collective of Black women's organizations and leaders dedicated to protecting the reproductive dignity of Black women and girls. She is also the lead organizer for SisterSong NYC, an advocacy group that fights for reproductive justice for women and girls in New York City. Burnett was a founding board member of Indiana Black Pride for four years and was a member of the International Federation of Black Prides.
Corinne Carey (Privacy at Stake: Patients, Clinics and Electronic Medical Records) is the Assistant Legislative Director at the http://www.nyclu.org/" target="_blank">New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU).
Ayesha Chatterjee (Can We Choose to Move Forward on Reproductive Justice? -- And How?) is Program Manager at Our Bodies Ourselves Global Initiative. See www.ourbodiesourselves.org.
Susan Elizabeth Davis ("Love Means Second Chances": Reproductive Freedom in a Novel) has been a reproductive justice activist since participating in the first abortion rights demonstration in New York City in March 1970. To learn more about "Love Means Second Chances," visit www.lovemeanssecondchances.com.
Susie Day (Satirist's View: Same Old Dilemma, or the Virgin Rebirth) writes a satire column for New York's Gay City News, Monthly Review's online magazine, MRzine.org, and other publications.
Carol Downer (As Access Slides, Feminists Need to "Extract" From Our Self-Help Past) is the author of "A New View of a Woman's Body," "How to Stay Out of the Gynecologist's Office," "Women Centered Pregnancy and Birth," and "A Book of Women's Choices."
Sarah Flint Erdreich (How Anti-Abortion Protesters Got Me: Letter From a Young Activist) recently completed her first book, "Generation Roe," about young pro-choice physicians, attorneys and activists. Her thoughts can be found at the Generation Roe blog and Feminists for Choice.
Gloria Feldt (The Grand Folly of Focusing on "Common Ground") is the author of "No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power," a frequent keynote speaker and a teacher of "Women, Power, and Leadership" at Arizona State University. She served as president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America from 1996 to 2005.
Justine Goodman (Before "Roe": Legal Battles, Involuntary Servitude, My Mom) is a freelance writer, editor and blogger, whose work has appeared in a variety of national publications, both in print and online. Many can be read on her website.
Mary Lou Greenberg (Next Generation Access: Medical Students Fill A Void) is an activist and contributing writer to Revolution newspaper.
Alexis Greene (The Power of Theater: "Words of Choice" Touches Hearts) is an author and editor, primarily of books about women and about theater. She is also Director of Public Relations for the community environmental center in Long Island City, Queens.
Merle Hoffman (Where the Reality of Abortion Resides: Intimate Wars) is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of On The Issues Magazine. She is the Founder, President and CEO of CHOICES Women's Medical Center. She is the author of the newly-released book, Intimate Wars: The Life and Times of the Woman Who Brought Abortion from the Back Alley to the Board Room from The Feminist Press.
Carole Joffe (Gone Too Far? Reproductive Politics in the Time of Obama) is a professor emerita of sociology at the University of California, Davis, and a professor at the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health at the University of California, San Francisco. She is the author of "Dispatches from the Abortion Wars: The Costs of Fanaticism to Doctors, Patients, and the Rest of Us," "Doctors of Conscience: The Struggle to Provide Abortion before and after Roe v Wade" and numerous other writings on abortion provision.
Kathryn Joyce (Lila Rose: A Sweet Face to Accompany Extreme Anti-Abortion Claims) is author of "Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement" (Beacon Press, 2009) and a book on adoption and religion forthcoming from PublicAffairs. Her freelance writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Mother Jones, The Nation, Newsweek, Slate, Salon, Ms., The Daily Beast and other publications.
Margie Kelly (Glorifying the Fetus While Ignoring the Fetal Environment) is an environmental health advocate and Communications Manager for Healthy Child Healthy World, an organization that ignites the movement that empowers parents to protect children from harmful chemicals. She is the former director of Communications at the Center for Reproductive Rights in New York and currently lives in Chicago, IL.
Jeannie Ludlow ( Reframing Compassionate Care: Of Madame Restell and Other Outlaws) is Assistant Professor of English and Coordinator of Women's Studies at Eastern Illinois University, a former abortion clinic employee, Secretary of the Board of the Abortion Conversation Project and a member of the national board of NARAL.
Carol Mason (What To Do When They Say Holocaust) is Professor of Gender and Women's Studies at the University of Kentucky and author of "Killing for Life: The Apocalyptic Narrative of Pro-Life Politics."
Amanda Marcotte (Helping Bloggers To Help: Tips for Reproductive Health Organizations) is a Brooklyn-based former Texan. She writes for Pandagon, Double X, and RH Reality Check, and has published two books, "It's A Jungle Out There" and "Get Opinionated."
Judy Norsigian (Can We Choose to Move Forward on Reproductive Justice? -- And How?) is Executive Director of Our Bodies Ourselves. See www.ourbodiesourselves.org.
Faith Pennick ("Silent Choices": African American Women Open Up on Film) is an award-winning filmmaker and writer based in Brooklyn, N.Y. For more information on her films, visit the Organized Chaos Mediaworks website: www.orgchaos.com. She can be followed on Twitter @orgchaosmedia.
Andrea Plaid (Heading Toward Menopause, Still Caring about Abortion) is the Associate Editor for the race-and-pop culture blog Racialicious. Her discussions on race, gender and sex have been featured on Alternet, In These Times, Bitch, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, as well as on GRITtv's "Chew on This" segment. Her work has been republished, among other online sites, on Penthouse, WireTap Magazine, New American Media and RaceWire.
Barbara Santee (Letter to a Young Activist: Do Not Drop the Banner) holds a Ph.D from Columbia University and three Masters degrees. She has been the director of evaluation for International Planned Parenthood Federation and the executive director of NARAL ProChoice Oklahoma. She currently is a consultant for the Abortion Access Project and moderates several pro-choice lists for her state.
Aram Schvey (Redefining Chutzpah: More Bad Ideas to Burden Women) is the Policy Counsel for Foreign Policy and Human Rights at the Center for Reproductive Rights and is responsible for advancing the center's international policy objectives in Washington, D.C.
Ria Sen (Sharing the Wealth of Knowledge on Abortion) is a Feminist Press intern and recent graduate of Hampshire College.
Priscilla Smith (An Abortion Miracle? Let's Try the First Amendment) is a Senior Research Scholar in Law in the Information Society Project at Yale Law School. Previously, she was a lawyer and the Director of the U.S. Legal Program at the Center for Reproductive Rights, during which time she argued Gonzales v. Carhart and Ferguson v. City of Charleston before the U.S. Supreme Court.
POETRY
Judith Arcana (Women's Liberation, 1971) writes poems, stories and essays; her books include "Grace Paley's Life Stories, A Literary Biography," the poetry collection "What if your mother," and the poetry chapbook "4th Period English." She just completed a linked fiction collection whose primary themes are tattooing and abortion (now seeking publication). In 2011, her work appeared in several journals and anthologies; visit juditharcana.com for titles and links -- on some, you can hear her read.
Katherine Anderson Howell (Things to Know When Walking to the Abortion Clinic) is an Adjunct Instructor of Writing at George Washington University. She regularly defends patients seeking reproductive health care from anti-choice protesters. She blogs for Split This Rock.
Marge Piercy (Ethics for Republicans) is the author of 17 novels, most recently "Sex Wars" published by Harper Collins Perennial, which also published her memoir, "Sleeping With Cats." She has 17 collections of poetry, the latest of which are "The Crooked Inheritance" (Knopf), and "Louder, We Can't Hear You Yet" (Leapfrog), a CD of her feminist and political poetry. Knopf is preparing a second volume of selected poems, tentatively titled "The Hunger Moon" (the first volume, "Circles on the Water," includes poems to 1981.) See
www.margepiercy.com.
Johnna Schmidt (Red Rover) is a poet and fiction writer who lives in Hyattsville, MD. She is the Director of the Jimenez-Porter Writers' House at the University of Maryland and is working on a book of short stories.
Sonya Renee Taylor (Why We Held Our Tongues) is a performance poet, activist and transformational leader. She is founder of the international radical self love movement, "The Body is Not An Apology," and author of the poetry collection, "A Little Truth on Your Shirt." She currently resides in Baltimore, MD. www.thebodyisnotanapology.com.
Melissa Tuckey (ABORTION) lives in Ithaca, New York. Her poems and translations have been published or are forthcoming in journals such as "Beloit Poetry Journal," "Hayden's Ferry Review," "Witness," "Verse Daily" and elsewhere. She is a founding member of Split This Rock, a national organization dedicated to poetry of witness and provocation.
CARTOON COMMENTARY
Matt Bors (LLZ) is a nationally syndicated editorial cartoonist based in Portland, Oregon. He collaborated with war correspondent David Axe on the graphic novel, War Is Boring and is the comics journalism editor at www.cartoonmovement.com.
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The Cafe
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Intimate Wars
of the Woman
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Back Alley
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• Merle Hoffman, publisher of On The Issues Magazine
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CURRENT ISSUE
Winter 2012
Realities of The Waiting Room: Constantly Shifting by Lori Adelman
Anti-Abortion Harassment and Violence Still Stifle Access by Eleanor J. Bader
We're Not Sorry. Still. by Jennifer Baumgardner
The Poet's Eye From Poetry Co-Editor Sarah Browning
Calling Black LGBTQ Institutions: Where Are You? Where is Reproductive Justice? by Jasmine Burnett
Privacy at Stake: Patients, Clinics and Electronic Medical Records by Corinne A. Carey
Can We Choose Move Forward on Reproductive Justice? -- And How? by Ayesha Chatterjee and Judy Norsigian
"Love Means Second Chances": Reproductive Freedom in a Novel by Susan Elizabeth Davis
Satirist's View: Same Old Dilemma, or The Virgin Rebirth by Susie Day
As Access Slides, Feminists Need to "Extract" From Our Self-Help Past by Carol Downer
Abortion: On The Issues Magazine - by The Editors
How Anti-Abortion Protesters Got Me: Letter From a Young Activist by Sarah Flint Erdreich
The Grand Folly of Focusing on "Common Ground" by Gloria Feldt
Before "Roe": Legal Battles, Involuntary Servitude, My Mom by Justine Goodman
Next Generation Access: Medical Students Fill A Void by Mary Lou Greenberg
The Power of Theater: "Words of Choice" Touches Hearts by Alexis Greene
Where the Reality of Abortion Resides: Intimate Wars by Merle Hoffman
Gone Too Far? Reproductive Politics in the Time of Obama by Carole Joffe
Lila Rose: A Sweet Face to Accompany Extreme Anti-abortion Claims by Kathryn Joyce
Glorifying the Fetus While Ignoring the Fetal Environment by Margie Kelly
Reframing Compassionate Care: Of Madame Restell and Other Outlaws by Jeannie Ludlow
Helping Bloggers To Help: Tips for Reproductive Health Organizations by Amanda Marcotte
What To Do When They Say Holocaust by Carol Mason
"Silent Choices": African American Women Open Up on Film by Faith Pennick
Fine Thoughts On Fertilized Personhood by Marge Piercy
Heading Toward Menopause, Still Caring about Abortion by Andrea Plaid
Letter to a Young Activist: Don’t Drop the Banner by Barbara Santee
Redefining Chutzpah: More Bad Ideas to Burden Women by Aram A. Schvey
Sharing the Wealth of Knowledge on Abortion by Ria Sen and The Feminist Press
An Abortion Miracle? Let's Try the First Amendment by Priscilla Smith
Related Stories: Bold Discussions of ABORTION in On The Issues Magazine by The Editors
The Art Perspective: Ursula O'Farrell curated by Linda Stein
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