Feminist Women’s Health Center

The state health department has cited the clinic for numerous health violations, including failing to keep the operating room clean and failing to store biohazardous waste properly. ²

The group is a partner of the Black Mamas Matter Alliance, a pro-abortion feminist group with a focus on Black women. ³

Background

The Feminist Women’s Health Center was founded in 1976 as a part of a federation of feminist women’s health centers. ⁴

The clinic was inspired by Loretta Ross and the SisterSong Reproductive Justice Collective to adopt the left-wing “reproductive justice” framework and address what it calls “systemic inequities in healthcare and society.” ⁴

As of 2017, the clinic employed a full-time lobbyist to advocate for abortion and other related issues at the Georgia State Capitol. ⁴

Reaction to Dobbs v. Jackson

In June 2022, Feminist Women’s Health Center executive director Kwajelyn Jackson responded to the Dobbs decision in an interview with Atlanta Civic Circle. She claimed the ruling would disproportionately harm Black women and non-whites who have “systemically been harmed by racism and the paternalism that exists under white supremacy.” ¹

She also claimed the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision was part of a clear agenda to “prop up white supremacist power in this country” and is “a way to keep people as tools in capitalism.” ¹

The Feminist Women’s Health Center was forced to adjust to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs ruling allowing states to regulate abortion. Soon after the ruling, Georgia’s ban on abortions after six weeks, when a heartbeat can be detected, took effect. ⁵

The clinic lost revenue after the heartbeat bill took effect and built out its non-abortion services such as prenatal and postpartum care, transgender services, fertility support, and mental-health services. ⁵

Ideology

In July 2023, Feminist Women’s Health Center executive director Kwajelyn Jackson gave an interview to Prism Reports detailing her broad left-of-center ideological positioning. In addition to expressing support for abortion access, Jackson declared abortion-restricting legislation “cruel” and argued that such legislation “very intentionally [fails] to acknowledge the humanity of the people who are affected by them.” ⁵

Jackson linked abortion-restricting laws to “people who are desperate to hold onto the power they have amassed are going to take bigger risks to maintain white supremacy.” Jackson favorably commented on opposition to a police training center in Atlanta and claimed that attempts at advancing non-left-wing policy were the “last gasp” of “white supremacy, capitalism, and patriarchy.” ⁵

Health Department Citations

Between 2012 and 2021, state health inspectors reported numerous health and safety violations at the Feminist Women’s Health Center. Among the items were expired medications for patient use, failure to store biohazardous waste properly, lack of qualified and trained medical personnel, failure to maintain hospital-admitting privileges for doctors, failure to keep operating rooms clean, and failure to conduct quarterly disaster and fire drills. ²

Black Mamas Matter Alliance

As of March 2024, the Feminist Women’s Health Center is a partner of the left-of-center feminist, pro-abortion group Black Mamas Matter Alliance. ³

Leadership

The Feminist Women’s Health Center executive director is Kwajelyn Jackson. ⁶

Financials

According to the Feminist Women’s Health Center’s 2022 tax return, the group had $4,244,420 in revenue, $4,104,952 in expenses, and $3,731,517 in assets. ⁶