Queens says ‘hell no’ to overturning Roe
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City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams was among the elected officials in attendance at a May 5 abortion rights rally at Borough Hall. Adams shared her personal experiences in clinics. Photo via Adrienne Adams/Twitter
By Rachel Vick
Merle Hoffman founded Queens-based reproductive health clinic Choices Women’s Medical Center in 1971 — one of the first in the country — as she pursued the right of a pregnant person to make their own choice when it comes to abortion. She has moved the clinic six times in the 50 years since its inception and last week, she took to the steps of Queens Borough Hall to speak out.
Hoffman’s first patient crossed the border from New Jersey, and the week before the rally she saw three women from Texas. She herself had an abortion in her 30s, with support and while she was married, because she wasn’t in a place to be a mother.
“My decision is enough,” the Queens College graduate said.
“If you cannot decide when or whether to be a mother and you don't have that fundamental moral agency, all other rights stand on very brittle glass,” she added. “Now we have to fight, I want women to come out of their psychological closets — own your choices. This is the great challenge of our lives.”
Hoffman was joined by more than two dozen supporters at a rally for reproductive rights Thursday night at Borough Hall in opposition to the Supreme Court draft opinion leaked days before – if made official, it would overturn the protections of Roe v. Wade.
Together, rally-goers called for federal abortion protection to be signed into law and for better support for those seeking abortions in states likely to implement restrictive laws if the SCOTUS decision is made official.
City Council Speaker and Queens lawmaker Adrienne Adams recalled her work at a clinic while in college, and the stories of the women whose hands she held as they waited to go through with their “well thought out and informed choices.” The right to choose, she said, is “a fundamental right of self determination.”
“It is clear that our right to reproductive healthcare has been under attack for quite some time… this is part of a national effort to take away abortion rights and it has led us here to this very dangerous and frightening moment in history,” Adams said. “People deserve dignified lives free from domination.”
Advocates, including representatives from the South Queens Women’s March and Center for Women NY, said that the reversal would also set a foundation for other civil liberties defined by judicial opinion to be reversed. They also called attention to the need for better funding for childcare, healthcare coverage and affordable housing in the wake of the threat to abortion protections.
Each speaker pointed to the disparate impacts on low-income patients, nonbinary and transgender individuals that changes to the protection would have.
Borough President Donovan Richards said he was an ally in the fight for reproductive rights, and promised that Queens would “not stay silent as Roe is gutted by five right-wing justices in black robes as if they were the grim reaper trying to destroy one of our country’s most sacred rights.”
Richards called on the city to allocate over $250,000 to the New York abortion fund for low-income patients, and called for the passage of legislation to create a statewide fund to help service providers expand their capacity.
“Overturning Roe won’t save lives, it will cost lives,” he said. “In New York, abortion resources are still and will always be available for anyone who seeks it, regardless of what the hell the Supreme Court says.”
