Post Roe Vs. Wade
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Post Roe vs. Wade 1
Running head: POST ROE VS. WADE
A Womans World:
New Kinds Of
Reproductive Health
Services
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The first era of the womens liberation movement in the 1960s paid close attention to womens rights to control their bodies along with abortion rights. Underground abortion clinics, particularly in Chicago, and other radical groups such as the Bostons Womens Health Collective began publishing missions and creating organizations such as Abortion Tack Force of NOW focused on the issue of reproductive rights.
Carol Downer and Lorraine Rothman, the leaders of the feminist health movement first became active and demonstrated gynecological self-examination on April 7, 1971 at the national NOW conference. In 1972, they formed the Feminist Womens Health Center (FWHC) and in 1973 the first women-controlled clinic was created which was committed to spreading the idea of self-help to women. According to Morgen (2002) this radical group didnt want to “co-exist with the medical establishment, we want to take it over.” (p.100) Spreading across counties, Rothman started the “Orange County FWHC”. (Morgen:100) New clinics soon to follow were the Oakland FWHC, the Tallahasse FWHC in 1974, and the Chico FWHC in 1975. The organization became a leader in education for self-help. Organizations alike struggled, the clinics within the FWHC often argued with its business structure. Morgen (2002) stated that “the FWHC protocols for funding and organizational structure are unpopular with independent clinic operators” (p. 102)
FWHC operated Cedar River Clinics (CRC) in Washington state represent its bold visions and goals which back to the 1970s. CRCs provide abortions, birth control, gynecological exams, and education to empower women. They are active participants in activism towards preserving the rights of women. They offer access to health care for those who can not afford it. They establish funding for programs such as The Take Charge program to provide birth control to those without insurance and the Women In Need Fund (WIN) makes abortion accessible giving women aid and enabling their right to choose. They provide the CONNECT program offering teens community education in
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sexual health. The health care service model created by FWHC is demonstrated by remaining an “educational process which enables women to arrive at their own conclusions”. (Morgen 2002:101)
New Hampshires first women-controlled clinic was first opened in October of 1974 called New Hampshire Women Health Center. The main mission of this clinic is to respect women, their choices, provide reproductive technologies, and sharing information about these choices. They also educated the community by publishing a quarterly called WomenWise. In 1980 the NHWHC added feminist to its name and opened the Concord Center. This clinic struggled through antiabortion movement receiving threats but endured the battle and in 1985 it separated into its own clinic becoming the Concord Feminist Health Center (CFHC) Despite the clinics accomplishments such as helping to bring the cervical cap into the series of birth control methods, the clinic collapsed