Ilyse Hogue

Ilyse Hogue (born August 26, 1969) is an American progressive activist who has served as president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, a reproductive rights lobbying and advocacy organization, since 2013.

Ilyse Hogue
Born (1969-08-26) August 26, 1969
Dallas, Texas, U.S.
EducationVassar College (BA)
University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor (MS)
Known forPresident of NARAL
Pro-Choice America
Political partyDemocratic

Early years

Hogue was born in Dallas, Texas in August 1969.[1] Her family is Jewish.[2][3][4] She graduated from high school at Greenhill School in Addison, Texas before attending Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, where she studied environmental sciences. She attended graduate school at the University of Michigan and then later worked as a research assistant at the University of Montana.[1] At Vassar, she engaged in her first political work in April 1989 when she joined the March for Women's Lives, a demonstration focused on reproductive rights.[5]

Career

Hogue joined NARAL in January 2013.[6][7][8] When assuming the role of president, some commentators remarked on her relative youth compared to her sexagenarian predecessor (she was 43 at the time) as an intentional choice on the part of NARAL as it sought to bring a more aggressive approach to defending abortion rights and courting younger supporters.[9]

One of her first moves as president was to build coalitions within the progressive movement with groups that traditionally had little to do with reproductive rights.[10] She has also brought an increased focus on ballot measures, partly in an attempt to force opponents to define what they are in favor of while giving Americans who support abortion rights a platform.[10]

Following a shooting which occurred at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado in 2015, The Huffington Post reported on a Facebook post of Hogue's in which she was critical of the rhetoric of anti-abortion activists including David Daleiden and Troy Newman.[11]

Prior to her work for NARAL, Hogue worked for MoveOn.org, Greenpeace, Rainforest Action Network, Media Matters for America, and the Friends of Democracy PAC, a campaign-finance reform group founded by Jonathan Soros.[12] She serves on the board of Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice, a Jewish social organization.[3]

On November 15, 2016, Hogue announced she was considering running in the Democratic National Committee chairmanship election, 2017.[13] She ultimately decided not to enter the race.

Personal life

She is married to John Neffinger with whom she had twins in 2015.[14]

Per her online video she declared “I’m Ilyse Hogue. I’m the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, which I might not be if I hadn’t had access to a legal abortion twenty years ago when I got pregnant due to a contraception failure. I always say my abortion story is boring. I got pregnant, I wasn’t ready to be a parent, I wasn’t with the person I wanted to be with for the rest of my life, we weren’t financially secure, we both had dreams that we wanted to go on and achieve.“

References
  1. Filipovic, Jill (February 23, 2015). "Get That Life: How I Became the President of NARAL Pro-Choice America". Cosmopolitan. Retrieved April 27, 2015.
  2. Philip, Weiss (May 11, 2012). "Liberal Zionists are afraid their parents will reject them if they come out". Mondoweiss.
  3. "Ilyse Hogue". Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice. Archived from the original on October 11, 2015. Retrieved August 31, 2015.
  4. Seltzer, Sarah (December 31, 2013). "14 Jewish Women To Watch in 2014". Forward.
  5. Stein, Annie. "Ilyse Hogue '91 Appointed NARAL's New President". Vassar. Retrieved December 15, 2016.
  6. Smith, Kathryn (February 28, 2013). "Long after Roe v. Wade, NARAL to redefine 'choice'". Politico. Retrieved April 27, 2015.
  7. Murray, Jon (September 12, 2014). "Personhood battle draws abortion rights leader; backer says opponents are distorting measure". Denver Post. Retrieved April 27, 2015.
  8. Bassett, Laura (January 14, 2013). "Ilyse Hogue Named President Of NARAL Pro-Choice America". Huffington Post. Retrieved April 27, 2015.
  9. Redden, Molly (February 19, 2013). "NARAL's New President Is Not in the Mood for Mellowing". New Republic. Retrieved November 30, 2015.
  10. "The Head of NARAL on Why It's Not Strange That She's Pregnant". ELLE. September 24, 2015. Retrieved December 1, 2015.
  11. "Abortion Rights Leader Nails Hypocrisy Of Anti-Abortion Activists". The Huffington Post. Retrieved November 30, 2015.
  12. "Ilyse Hogue". The Nation. Retrieved April 27, 2015.
  13. Strauss, Daniel. "NARAL chief weighs run for DNC chair". Retrieved December 15, 2016.
  14. McCarthy, Ellen (June 7, 2015). "Abortion rights leader's pregnancy surprises opponents: 'Is that real?'". Washington Post. Retrieved June 12, 2015.
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