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.

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