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Pro-life Sidewalk Counselors: ‘Their Mere Existence is a Crime Against Women'

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BROOKLYN, NEW YORK— A New York abortion provider said of pro-life activists in a courtroom Thursday, “their mere existence is a crime against women.”

Testifying in a case that could silence pro-life sidewalk counselors, Merle Hoffman also called those counselors “American Taliban.”

Hoffman, the CEO of Choices Women’s Medical Clinic in Jamaica, New York, has written in the past, “The act of abortion positions women at their most powerful, and that is why it is so strongly opposed by many in society.”

In her memoir, “Intimate Wars: The Life and Times of the Woman Who Brought Abortion from the Back Alley to the Boardroom,” Hoffman also wrote, “Does the fetus not impede a woman’s tendency to maintain her own existence?  Is it not an unjust aggressor, threatening the survival of the mother?  Is not a woman’s choice of abortion an act of self-defense?”

Hoffman’s clinic since 1971 has put an end to lives of hundreds of thousands of unborn babies.   In her memoir she stated, “I quickly came to realize that those who deliver abortion services have not only the power to give women control over their bodies and lives, but also the power — and the responsibility — of taking life in order to do that."

Liberty Counsel is a pro-life legal group defending pro-life sidewalk counselor Scott Fitchett Jr. in the case.    Founder Mat Staver said after Hoffman’s testimony, “Merle Hoffman has acknowledged the obvious — that abortion is the taking of human life.   What is shocking is that she believes killing a helpless child empowers women by enabling them to achieve their selfish goals.”

Hoffman admitted in the trial of Fitchett and 12 others that she has collaborated with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to try to both silence and punish pro-life sidewalk counselors outside her abortion clinic.

Attorney Horatio Mihet of the Liberty Counsel questioned Hoffman in the courtroom.   He said after, “The depravity of those who find ‘empowerment’ from taking what they rightly acknowledge to be defenseless human lives is matched only by their insatiable desire to shut down any speech that exposes them.”

Staver said after Hoffman’s testimony, “Countless precious lives have already been lost at Hoffman’s abortion clinic.  Hoffman and Schneiderman are now fighting to punish the peaceful free speech of Scott Fitchett Jr. and others.  It is no wonder they do not care about the First Amendment, because they do not care about defenseless human life.”

Mihet added, “The very fact that Merle Hoffman has assisted in the destruction of hundreds of thousands of ‘little ones’ over the last half-century is unspeakably tragic.   But her conspiring with New York’s Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to punish Scott Fitchett Jr. for peacefully preaching truth on a public sidewalk is unconscionable.”

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About The Author

Paul
Strand

As senior correspondent in CBN's Washington bureau, Paul Strand has covered a variety of political and social issues, with an emphasis on defense, justice, and Congress. Strand began his tenure at CBN News in 1985 as an evening assignment editor in Washington, D.C. After a year, he worked with CBN Radio News for three years, returning to the television newsroom to accept a position as editor in 1990. After five years in Virginia Beach, Strand moved back to the nation's capital, where he has been a correspondent since 1995. Before joining CBN News, Strand served as the newspaper editor for