On April 30, Joy of Resistance will be celebrating 24 years of being on the air at WBAI -- we started broadcasting the show in April of 2002 -- with three fantastic women's rights activists who have all made many appearances on our show over the years and are pioneers of various branches of the feminist movement; all have been in the struggle for women's rights for most of their adult lives.

They are: Carol Giardina, Merle Hoffman and Loretta Ross. The three interviews you will hear will have elements of reunion -- as we recall important contributions these women have made as guests on the show; of recall of the history their activism has spanned and a glimpse of how they see the present moment or women's rights.

And on this la st d ay of WBAI's April fund drive, we will be speaking of the part that WBAI has played during these years of activism and why it deserves your support.

CAROL GIARDINA BIO

Carol Giardina began making referrals to then illegal abortions from her college dorm in 1963. In 1968, she was fired from her job for participating in the 1968 Miss America Pageant Protest as a member of Gainesville Women's Liberation, a group she cofounded with Judith Brown. Today she is a member of Redstockings and National Women's Liberation. She teaches U.S. history and women's studies at Queens College and recently published the book 'Freedom for Women: Forging the Women's Liberation Movement, 1963-1970. She speaks as a 1960's activist who is as active today as she was in the 60's--an activist-scholar.

MERLE HOFFMAN'S BIO

Merle Hoffman is an internationally known leader in the struggle for women’s rights, a healthcare pioneer, founder of women’s health, political, and reproductive rights organizations, and a prize-winning writer and publisher. Her work spans 52 years and continues today.
 
In 1971, she co-founded Flushing Women’s Medical Center in the borough of Queens in NYC two years before Roe v. Wade legalized abortion nationwide. This was the fore-runner of  Choices Women’s Medical Center, of which she is the President and CEO to this day. Hoffman is more then a service provider--she is an all around activist and her activism has taken many forms:

In 1976, Hoffman co-founded the National Abortion Federation (NAF), the first professional organization of abortion providers in the U.S.

In 1977, she was a vocal proponent for the accurate labeling of over-the-counter birth control drugs, resulting in congressional hearings and the eventual labeling requirements.

In 1985, Hoffman founded the New York Pro-Choice Coalition (NYPCC), the first umbrella organization of pro-choice individuals and organizations committed to ensuring safe, legal abortion in New York.

She was one of the first activists to organize opposition to the anti-abortion Christian Right organization: Operation Rescue (OR). When OR announced it would shut down abortion services in New York City for a week in 1988, the New York Pro-Choice Coalition, founded by Hoffman, responded by rebranding those days “Reproductive Freedom Week” and organizing a counter protest that drew 1,300 supporters. She also publicly challenged New York City’s Cardinal John O’Connor‘s support of Operation Rescue, by organizing the First Pro-Choice Civil Disobedience action outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City in 1989. She has also publicly debated Jerry Falwell on the subject of abortion.

Her publishing work includes: Starting a newsletter for Choices in 1982 which developed into On the Issues: The Progressive Women’s Quarterly, an acclaimed national magazine with an international following--online since 2008. The book: Intimate Wars: The Life and Times of the Woman Who Brought Abortion from the Back Alley to the Boardroom (2023) and her latest book: Choices: A Post-Roe Abortion Manifesto (2023), written after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision. In it she sheds light on the catastrophic repercussions of overturning Roe and what we as a nation must do moving forward to ensure the safety and freedom of women and girls everywhere.

Her international work includes: Opening the first Feminist Medical Center in Moscow in 1992 and working with Polish feminists against draconian abortion restrictions in Poland in 2020.

Her recent activist work includes:
In January 2022, she co-initiated RiseUp4AbortionRights to build mass non-violent protests to stop the U.S. Supreme Court from decimating abortion rights and to challenge complacency in the face of the possible overturning of Roe. After the Supreme Court overturned Roe on June 24, 2022, she has remained active in organizing and calling for the U.S. Government to legalize abortion nationwide.

LORETTA BIO

Loretta J. Ross is an activist, professor, and public intellectual. In her five decades in the human rights movement, she’s deprogramed white supremacists, taught convicted rapists the principles of feminism, and, as National Co-Director, organized the second-largest march on Washington (in April 25, 2004, March for Women’s Lives in Washington D.C., surpassed in size only by the 2017 Women’s March). 

A cofounder of the National Center for Human Rights Education and the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, her many accolades and honors include a 2022 MacArthur Fellowship and a 2024 induction into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. Today, Ross is an associate professor at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, and is the founder of LoRossta Consulting, with which she runs “Calling In” training sessions online and for organizations around the country.
You are one of the 12 co-developers of the framework that has changed the language and context of how we talk about reproductive rights and that is the REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE FRAMEWORK.