Ilyse Hogue

Ilyse Hogue is the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, where she has led the organization in the fight for reproductive freedom since 2013. Since taking the helm at NARAL, Ilyse has pushed the national conversation around the right to access abortion and centered the ability to decide if, when, and how to raise a family as fundamental to meaningful societal equality. Under her leadership, NARAL has become an organizing powerhouse—tripling its membership to 2.5 million, advancing state and federal legislation to protect and expand abortion access, and fighting an unprecedented wave of abortion bans at the state level. 

At the Democratic National Convention in 2016, Ilyse made history by sharing her own abortion story on the national stage, explaining that “it’s not as simple as bad girls get abortions and good girls have families. We are the same women at different times in our lives—each making decisions that are the best for us.”

A lifelong activist and organizer, Ilyse is an expert in organizing and mobilizing grassroots support around social justice issues including reproductive freedom, climate change, and media reform. Her commentary has been featured in The Washington Post, HuffPost, The Nation, Cosmopolitan, and ELLE. She is a frequent guest in the media, appearing as a progressive pundit on MSNBC, CNN, and NPR. Ilyse holds a Master of Science from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Arts from Vassar College.