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The Obama administration on Friday upheld a requirement for health insurers to cover contraception. The announcement was made in response to a request by the Roman Catholic Church seeking an exemption to the requirement, for insured employees of Catholic schools, hospitals, churches and more. The government has given the church an extra year to comply but Archbishop Timothy Dolan, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops retorted, “[i]n effect, the president is saying we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences.” Republican Senator Orrin Hatch said “the administration has shown a complete lack of regard for our constitutional commitment to religious liberty.” He made no mention of the nation’s commitment to women’s rights.

This week marks the 39th anniversary of the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision in the case Roe Vs. Wade, over a Texas law that had made abortion illegal. That case set the standard for women’s reproductive rights and was ruled under the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, that a woman’s decision to have an abortion fell within her right to privacy. Roe vs. Wade, from the outset was denounced by the Religious right and the fight to overturn it continues to this day, with all Republican candidates for President having signed a pledge by the organization Personhood USA. Personhood USA is waging a state-by-state battle to pass initiatives that deem a fertilized egg as equivalent to a human life, part of a trajectory that is headed to challenge Roe Vs. Wade in court.

GUEST: Merle Hoffman, a journalist, activist, and women’s health pioneer, who in 1971 founded one of the first ambulatory abortion centers. Hoffman is the founder of the New York Pro-Choice Coalition, and co-founder of the National Abortion Federation. Her new book and memoir is called Intimate Wars: The Life and Times of the Woman who Brought Abortion from the Back Alley to the Boardroom.

NOTE: During the live interview, Ms. Hoffman’s phone got cut off. Below is the last Question and Answer of the interview, completed after the broadcast:

Sonali Kolhatkar: This year abortion will become a political football like it does every election year. What do you think needs to be done by those who want to protect women’s reproductive rights?

Merle Hoffman: Each one of us has to take the responsibility of defending these rights-or we will lose them. That defense can start with the simple phrase — yes I had a abortion, or I knew someone who did — and from there you look around and see where you can use yourself for the cause: online, marching, meeting, building coalitions, etc. It may be difficult but we have to all practice courage for ourselves and our daughters.