Women’s Community Clinic

In February 1999 San Francisco faced a
crisis when the Women’s Needs Center, an organization that provided free health
care services to over 4,000 women annually, was forced to shut its doors as the
result of financial cutbacks at its parent organization, Haight-Ashbury Free
Clinics, Inc. Out of concern for the impact the Women’s Needs Center’s closing
would have on the local health care landscape, a group of volunteers and
clinicians came together and, with the support of community members,
colleagues, family and friends, decided to re-open the clinic as an independent
entity. On June 28, 1999, just four months after the Women’s Needs Center
closed, the Women’s Community Clinic opened its doors to the community.