Pamela Merritt is an American writer and reproductive justice activist who advocates for women's rights and against white supremacy. Merritt is the executive director at Medical Students for Choice (MSFC), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with a network of over 10,000 medical students and residents around the world.^[1]

Prior to joining MSFC, Merritt co-founded and served with Erin Matson as co-director at Reproaction, a reproductive justice organization that works to increase access to abortion,^[2][3] expose deceptive practices at pregnancy crisis centers,^[4][5] and improve infant and maternal death rates.^[6][7][8][9] Merritt advocates for recruiting and training more doulas and midwives to improve birth mortality rates.^[10] She has published thousands of articles on racism and gender, and been featured on several national websites for her activism and expertise, including on the Washington Post,^[7] NPR,^[11] Rolling Stone,^[12] Vox,^[13] and the Huffington Post.^[4]

Merritt regularly receives violent sexual threats in response to her work, and is harassed extensively online on social media.^[14] She says she routinely reports the most threatening incidents to the police,^[15] and was once warned by the FBI about a white supremacist actively trying to find her home address, forcing her to change her online habits.^[10]

Merritt is a member of the Guttmacher Institute board of directors,^[16] the Leadership Council of Our Bodies Ourselves Today,^[17] and is the Honorary Chair of the Reproaction Advisory Council. She has spoken out strongly against Donald Trump.^[18] She grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, and before becoming an activist worked for a St. Louis newspaper.^[10][19]

Merritt attended Bard College at Simon's Rock and Brandeis University, where she studied anthropology and women's studies.

References

Outside links

• Reproaction