Women's Community Health Center

The Women's Community Health Center in Cambridge, Mass., was incorporated in February 1974 as a women-owned and women-controlled health center. A year earlier, in August 1973, self-help proponent Jennifer Burgess met Cookie Avrin at a self-help presentation in Worcester, Mass. Avrin informed Burgess that there were many women in the Boston area eager to start a health center. The women joined with other feminists to organize the First Annual Women's Health Conference at the Boston YWCA. By December 1973, a core group of women were meeting weekly to organize the center, and chose to form a collective. They filed for incorporation in February 1974, and in April moved into their new office at 173 Hampshire Street, Cambridge, Mass.

The core philosophy of the WCHC was self-help. Writing in 1976, staff stated that the WCHC was "a feminist institution which seeks radical social change by implementing the concept of self-help; the sharing of skills and information so that women can regain control of our health care and our lives." The WCHC sought to provide high quality, low cost health care for women. Initially, staff offered self-help programs and gynecological services, including pregnancy screenings, but by May 1975 they were performing first trimester abortions. Self-help programs covered topics such as paramedical skills, lesbian health issues, menopause, herbal self-help, and natural birth control. Staff gave presentations to groups, including a video presentation on well-woman healthcare, and slide presentations on the components of a good gynecological exam and women-controlled abortions. The WCHC maintained a library and produced medical fact sheets on women's health topics; literature was translated into Spanish and Portuguese. In conjunction with the Cambridge YWCA, the WCHC hosted annual Women's Health Weekends. In 1976, the center operated a pelvic teaching program for the Harvard Medical School in which WCHC staff acted as instructors and patients for medical students learning to perform gynecological exams. The program broke down, however, because WCHC staff felt that they were only valued by the medical school in their role as informed patients while their ideas on self-help and women-controlled exams were being ignored.

The WCHC maintained close ties with women's health clinics and organizations on a national level, particularly the network of Feminist Women's Health Centers. Staff were also members and supporters of WATCH (Women Acting Together to Combat Harassment), a national organization of women's health activists. In addition, they were involved with numerous pro-choice organizations, including Abortions Rights Movement of Women's Liberation (ARM) and the National Abortion Council (later Federation).

In 1975, the WCHC began a lengthy process for clinic licensure. Legally operating under the licenses of their doctors, the clinic license was needed in order to allow the WCHC to apply for third party payments, such as Medicaid, and to advertise their medical services. The center underwent numerous building inspections, navigated a zoning dispute with the city of Cambridge, and repeatedly re-filed paperwork that the city had lost. In 1977, the process was further hindered by the Massachusetts Committee on Post Audit and Oversight, which had launched an investigation of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health's procedures and records relating to abortion. The Committee challenged the WCHC's ability to provide medical services, particularly abortions, while it was in the process of obtaining a license. To counter negative attention from the press, the WCHC responded with advertisements and a letter writing campaign. As a result of the Committee's actions, the DPH set a deadline for the WCHC to obtain its license. Rather than working to adapt their Hampshire Street location to meet code, the center looked for a new location, a process that was complicated by the negative media attention the center had received. The WCHC moved to its new location at 639 Massachusetts Avenue in April 1978, and received its license on April 25, 1978. Writing in the annual report for 1978, staff maintained that the "difficulties encountered [during the clinic licensure process] reflect ways that bureaucratic red tape can be used for conscious harassment. WCHC was subjected to this harassment because as an anti-capitalist, feminist self-help center it threatens the medical establishment and ultimately our political and economic system."

Founded as a collective, the WCHC operated on this consensus-driven model during its early years. Staff were expected to participate in the administrative, educational, and medical programs of the center; they rotated jobs, served on committees, and attended the weekly business meeting where major decisions about the center were made by consensus. This structure, however, was under constant review and the WCHC was reorganized several times. Because of the pressures of the process for clinic licensure, the WCHC created a steering committee in 1977, and ceased operating as a traditional collective. In 1978, an advisory board consisting of staff and feminists from the community (friends of the WCHC, former staff members, and other health workers) was established.

The WCHC operated on a suggested fee system of payment, and funding often depended on contributions from supporters. The WCHC did receive small grants from local organizations, including the Boston Women's Health Book Collective, but strove to fund the center through fees from medical services and honoraria from self-help presentations and groups. Until it received its clinic license in 1978, the center could not accept insurance payments. Throughout the WCHC's existence, finances were limited and its existence tenuous. On August 3, 1981, the WCHC closed and filed for bankruptcy. The closing was largely due to financial instability created by a decline in numbers of patients and past debt. In addition, staff maintained that the conservative political climate and the depressed economic conditions of the early 1980s made it difficult for their small, non-profit business to survive.