WOMEN'S HEALTH SPECIALISTS - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder
- Member of the Board of Directors
Carol Downer was active in the late 1960's in the struggle for civil rights and local politics. She joined the women's liberation movement in 1969, and worked with a group of women in Los Angeles to make abortion available under California's liberalized abortion law.
She took a vaginal speculum from an illegal abortion clinic and figured out how to do vaginal self-examination, and shared this revolutionary news with her women's liberation group on April 7, 1971. That fall, Carol and Lorraine Rothman traveled across the United States with boxes of speculums bringing vaginal self-exam and menstrual extraction, to women of the United States. They launched the idea and shared the tools for women to control their own reproduction, at a time when abortion, birth control and fertility information were not available.
After Carol and Lorraine returned, the group, which then included new members who traveled from various parts of the country to join them, incorporated as the Feminist Women's Health Center. The FWHC established the Women's Abortion Referral Service. In 1972, The Board of Medical Examiners and the police department raided the health center and arrested Carol and Colleen Wilson for practicing medicine without a license. This case became know as the Great Yogurt Conspiracy, or "The Yogurt Case" for short, because one of the so-called crimes committed by Carol was helping a woman insert yogurt into her vagina to relieve a yeast condition. Colleen Wilson pled guilty to one count of fitting a diaphragm and Carol went to trial and was acquitted by a jury of all charges. Sixty days after the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion in 1973, the FWHC in Los Angeles opened the first women-controlled abortion clinic.
Carol was a founder of the Federation of Feminist Women's Health Centers in 1975, and under her leadership, the federation members were crucial in helping other woman-controlled clinics open across the country. Carol coordinated the "Book team", and edited the unpublished manuscript,Women's Health in Women's Hands. This manuscript was the foundation for three books by the Federation of FWHC: A New View of a Woman's Body, edited by Rebecca Chalker,How to Stay OUT of the Gynecologists Office, and Woman-Centered Pregnancy and Birth, with Ginny Cassidy-Brinn, R.N. Carol also co-wrote A Woman's Book of Choices: Abortion, Menstrual Extraction, and RU486 with Rebecca Chalker. Carol is a founder and former board member and Vice-President of the National Abortion Federation.
Carol is an immigration lawyer in Los Angeles. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Feminist Women's Health Centers of California, which operates eight Women's Health Specialists clinics.
Carol Downer, co-founder of the first Feminist Women's Health Center in Los Angeles, and pioneer of the self-help movement, said that Barbara Seaman's high-profile support of women-controlled clinics was invaluable.
We were very grass-roots and she took to us and smoothed the path for us over the years," Downer said. "She was just a hub of the women's health movement. She brought the best out in all of us, and she had an impact on women's health around the world. [1]
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Founder and Executive Director April 13, 1949 - July 15, 2004
Dido Hasper grew up in Walnut Creek, California. Dido was in high school when abortion was completely illegal and helped women travel to Mexico to obtain abortions.
Dido was a member of the State of California Midwife Advisory Council that developed legislation aimed at legalizing lay midwives. She served as a member of the State of California, Department of Consumer Affairs Colloquium to Redefine the Medical Practice Act. In 1992 Dido served as an Advisory Committee Member to the Little Hoover Commission's Review of Discriminatory Medi-cal Policies. She was also a member of the
Dido has been recognized locally as one of Twenty Who Made a Difference in Chico, and was presented a California State Senate Certificate of Recognition for her work in preserving women's reproductive rights. In 1998, the Soroptimist International of Chico awarded her for Advancing the Status of Women.
Through her international travels, Dido developed an anti-imperialist and anti-patriarchal world view, and was critical of sterilization abuse and testing of birth control on women in developing countries.
A true pioneer in the women's health movement. Dido put the health centers on the map, weathering opposition from anti-abortionists, funding crises, and fighting social bigotry. Using the vital lessons and knowledge Dido shared so generously with all of us, we will continue our work in her memory.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder
- Executive Director
Katrina Maczen-Cantrell began her work at Women's Health Specialists in 1985 as a volunteer. Her innovative vision and extraordinary leadership has helped WHS emerge as a model for health care delivery and community engagement.
Inspired by her grounding in Native American culture, Katrina has applied indigenous attitudes and techniques to her mission of keeping women's health in women's hands with the support of her colleagues, community and organization. She continues to work toward this goal by focusing on the pursuit of cultural and economic self-determination for marginalized people while providing reproductive health services and education to all communities.
Katrina is a co-founder and current chair of the Northstate Women's Health Network. She also serves as Board President of the Native American Women's Health Education Resource Center in South Dakota, as a Board Member of SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective and on the Title X Education Committee of the California Family Health Council. She is former Board Member of the National Network of Abortion Funds and the National Women's Health Network of Washington, D.C. Katrina was awarded the Anna Mae Picton Aquash Award for Activism by the Indigenous Women's Network in New York City; the C. Lalor Burdick Award as an "Unsung Hero" by the National Abortion Federation; and she was a keynote speaker, along with other national leaders at the National March for Women's Lives in Washington D.C.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
A pioneer of the Self-Help Movement, Lorraine Rothman has dedicated her life to women's rights of self-determination and control of their bodies.
Lorraine Rothman was a founding member of Self-Help Clinic One (1971), In the fall of that year, she traveled throughout the U.S. with Carol Downer, speaking to NOW (National Organization for Women) chapters and other women's groups about self-examination and menstrual extraction.
In 1972, Rothman applied for and received a U.S. patent for the Menstrual Extraction Kit, the Del'Em. In 1973, the Supreme Court ruled that abortion was a legal procedure, citing the 14th Amendment.
Job Titles:
- Director at Women 's Health Specialists and Adoption Choices of Northern California
Marikathryn Hendrix joined Women's Health Specialists in 1994 when she co-founded Adoption Choices of Northern California, a pro-choice Adoption Facilitation Program. Mari assists both pregnant women considering adoption as well as families pursuing adoption. She advocates for pregnant women being in control of their own adoption and she is dedicated to providing hands on services and support for them.
Marikathryn is active in bringing adoption information to the community and coordinates various adoption events including adoption documentary viewings, adoption radio shows, annual adoption family picnics, adoption workshops and adoptive parent, birth parent and adoptee groups. She speaks at high schools, colleges, family planning clinics and other health service organizations sharing information about adoption.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Writer Publicized Women 's Health Issues." Los Angeles Times. March 2, 2008. 10 March 2008. [Http
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Women 's Health Specialists Executive Director, Worked Alongside Dido Hasper for 28 Years. Shauna Offers This Tribute