Women’s Healthcare Pioneer: When abortion became legal in New York State in 1970, Merle Hoffman didn’t celebrate—she got to work. While others were still absorbing the news, she opened one of the first standalone women’s health clinics in the country. No medical guidelines existed for a procedure that had only ever been done in secret, so she wrote them. Her patients didn’t know their rights, so she wrote those down, too—a document that became the blueprint for the federal Patient’s Bill of Rights. Fifty-plus years later, Hoffman is still at it—still running Choices Women’s Medical Center in Queens, still fighting, and still asking the questions that don’t have easy answers. “It’s an intrinsic trust in myself, which I’ve always noticed and always had. Things come to me and I feel them organically, and I want to do this, and I trust that my decision is the right decision. And I …
Cindy Cohn, retiring executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, speaks about the controversies regarding restriction of online speech. Addressing everything from breastfeeding forums to human rights abuses in Sudan, she argues forcefully that despite the drawbacks, we must conserver our right to speak freely and privately on the Internet. Related: “Fighting for a Better Online World with Cindy Cohn” “Minibabble: 3 women. 3 lawyers. 3 ways to change the world.” News clip courtesy of NPR. ”Silence” courtesy of Unwoman at Unwoman.com …
LaDoris Cordell, Denise Miranda, and Cindy Cohn are three very different women who have had three very different careers. But all three have drawn their inspiration from using their legal training to make a difference in the world …
I went into my interview with Cindy Cohn of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ready to argue my case that anonymity is the problem. I came away with a more nuanced understanding …
Cindy Cohn’s new book, Privacy’s Defender, focuses on three legal cases that formed the basis for privacy and freedom of speech on the Internet. But it’s also a memoir, framing the issues raised by legal battles through personal choices and life events both mundane and momentous. In this unusual conversation, we leave the big legal questions behind and focus instead on our modern lives on the internet. What do women get from privacy and freedom of speech when men so often use their own privacy and freedom of speech to restrict women’s online behavior? How does the internet mirror the real world when it comes to harassment and bullying of women? How would proposed fixes to the internet’s free speech woes restrict women’s speech even further? …
Denise Miranda is New York State’s top civil rights official, the head of an agency that is charged with monitoring and promoting civil rights in the state. She’s also a proud native of the Bronx, daughter of Puerto Rican-born parents, and a mother. On the Babblery, we discuss the passion for justice and rights for all that drives her work …
What happens when women’s fight for long-delayed justice collides with our legal tenet of due process? In this Minibabble, host Suki Wessling speaks with retired judge LaDoris Hazzard Cordell about the #MeToo movement and how she reacted when she heard some women insist that we should “believe all women.” …
