Concord Feminist Health Center honors its history and the many challenges and changes that have made us who we are as an organization. In our eyes, our health center is unique, an oasis of compassion and respect for women and their loved ones in an increasingly corporate, profit-driven health care system. That distinctiveness – that human touch – still surprises many women who come to us for care, who have become used to the 5-minute, no-time-for-questions appointment. We will know our job as women’s health activists is done when women are no longer surprised at being treated with care, compassion and respect.
Who we are, what we do and the way we do it, is a story that goes back to 1973 and the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision legalizing abortion.
Abortion legalized…but what next?
After the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, women’s rights activists throughout the country celebrated the end of illegal, unsafe abortion and the suffering and death it had caused for decades. But the Supreme Court’s decision was only the beginning: making abortion legal didn’t make it immediately available or affordable. At that time in New Hampshire, abortions were expensive and performed mainly in hospitals, and women were given little information and virtually no emotional support.
Soon a group of Concord women began meeting to figure out how to address the needs of New Hampshire women for accessible, affordable abortion services. Their vision – a radical one for the time – was of a non-profit, freestanding clinic, run by women for women, where abortion care would be nurturing, compassionate, empowering, and respectful of the dignity of every woman. The vision of these women was realized on October 19, 1974 when New Hampshire Women’s Health Services – later to be renamed Concord Feminist Health Center - opened its doors at 38 S. Main Street in Concord.
We’ve come a long way, baby…
The community quickly recognized that this was indeed a different kind of place, offering a different kind of health care. Today, many of the aspects of health care that were so radical and innovative in the 1970’s have become ordinary, basic expectations – so it’s hard to fully appreciate how different things were back then. In fact, abortion wasn’t the only thing that was illegal – so was birth control (except condoms). Many young women today would be shocked to learn that it was only in 1965 that the Supreme Court granted married women the universal right to acquire contraceptives – and single women didn’t have that right until 1972. “Women’s health” was a completely new concept back then, born from women’s eagerness to know more about their bodies, about reproduction, birth control, and sexuality…and their frustration at the lack of such information. The medical system was completely male-dominated, and women frequently felt patronized in their dealings with doctors. Almost all doctors were men, and there was no such thing as a nurse practitioner or a lay health educator.
The women who created CFHC wanted to make sure that women who sought care here would be met as equals; that they would be trusted to know their own bodies; that their desire for information would be appreciated, not dismissed; that they would be treated with respect for their dignity and their individual needs.
So they dispensed with the white coats and the indignity of meeting the doctor while up in stirrups. They made the place look homey rather than clinical. Nurse practitioners provided GYN care, and paraprofessional health workers, trained on the job, did counseling and education. They made sure women’s questions were welcomed and thoughtfully answered, that information was freely shared rather than withheld. Considering the climate of the time, these women were true pioneers.
Our accomplishments, our goals
Throughout the years since CFHC opened, we are proud to say that we have become nationally recognized experts in abortion and contraceptive care. There are many things we have done that make us proud, including these:
- maintained the highest quality of abortion services throughout our history
- provided pregnancy options counseling and pre- and post-abortion counseling to help thousands of women and their families meet the challenges of coping with their unexpected pregnancy
- been among the first to offer newly available birth control methods
- educated hundreds of women, men and teens about abortion, contraception, and other women’s health issues through our speaker services to schools and community organizations
- provided STI and HIV counseling and testing to women and men
- been among the first in N.H. to make emergency contraception readily accessible
- provided critical financial assistance to countless women needing abortion services
- weathered many storms of anti-abortion protest and attacks on our building
- helped to fight numerous legislative proposals intended to restrict New Hampshire women’s right to choose when and whether to become a parent
- helped launch other organizations such as the Womankind counseling service and the NARAL Pro-Choice New Hampshire
- received awards from the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union, the National Women’s Health Network, and NARAL-NH
- became a training site for physicians and others to learn and improve their skills in routine gynecology and abortion
But our biggest accomplishment, our greatest source of pride, is in the women who turn to us for care and leave feeling empowered, respected and cared for on not only a medical but on a human level, and above all, met not with judgment but acceptance. Our goal is to continue to make sure that this kind of health care is available to our community far into the future.