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The End of an Era
December 12, 2006
Dear Friends,
Today I write to inform you that at the end of January 2007 Aradia Women’s Health Center will cease clinic operations and programming, and close its doors permanently.
Several factors have significantly impacted the organization’s ability to grow and thrive. These include costs associated with rising malpractice insurance as well as increased security and rent. In addition, growing numbers of clients require subsidized health care – the number of lower-income women seeking abortions at Aradia has increased by almost 20 percent over the last five years, as well as the number of women needing publicly funded contraception and family planning. Seventy percent of our clients currently require subsidized health care from our clinic and the burden of making up the cost of providing services has become too heavy to shoulder.
I hope that Aradia’s closure will help consolidate community support for reproductive health and rights. I also see this as an opportunity for our community to highlight the need for more government resources to subsidize women’s health care and to invest in a new system of health care delivery.
Seattle is lucky to have numerous quality reproductive health providers and clinics that offer women a lot of choice in where they receive care. We are actively working to transfer client care and files to the appropriate provider to ensure a smooth transition for the women we serve. In addition, we are engaged in a thorough process to transition our teen sexual health program, CONNECT, which offers essential health education to youth in our region. I feel extremely confident that the community will gracefully step up to fill in any gaps in health care services, education or advocacy that may arise from Aradia’s dissolution.
I thank you for your support of Aradia Women’s Health Center over the 34 years we have served our community. Since 1972, Aradia has been a leader in reproductive health care and rights, providing abortion and gynecological health services, community education, state legislative advocacy and medical training throughout the Pacific Northwest. As a nonprofit feminist women's health center, Aradia Women's Health Center has encouraged all women to take an active role in their health care and believes that women deserve a place where no question is ignored or trivialized.
Aradia was founded in 1972 as a YWCA-sponsored community collective of gynecological health care providers. After Roe v. Wade legalized abortion in 1973, the clinic offered pre- and post-abortion counseling, and in 1977 began providing the safe and sensitive abortion care for which it has been known for almost 30 years. Since that time, Aradia has provided more than 54,000 women with compassionate, non-judgmental abortion and gynecological health care, trained more than a thousand medical students and has served as a training ground for hundreds of staff women and volunteers. In 1982, Aradia Clinic became Aradia Women’s Health Center, incorporating outreach, education and state-level legislative advocacy into our work – programs that have continued to this day.
Our success is due in large part to you, Aradia’s supporters, who have consistently believed in the power of feminist health care and championed Aradia’s mission. I hope our vision statement continues to inspire you and that you carry it forward: Aradia Women's Health Center envisions a world where each woman's individual choices regarding her reproductive and sexual health are respected so that she may live freely and truly reach her highest potential.
We look forward to celebrating the success of the organization with you in the near future.
On behalf of the board and staff of Aradia Women’s Health Center,
Scott Leopold, President
Aradia Women's Health Cente
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