Renee Chelian is the founder of the Northland Family Planning Centers and the President of the Health Center for Women. For nearly four decades, Renee Chelian has been a passionate advocate for advancing and protecting women’s choices regarding pregnancy and birth control. Before the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, Renee flew to New York each week with a Detroit-area physician offering women safe, legal abortion care. In 1976, she founded Northland Family Planning Center which has since expanded to three locations serving the greater metropolitan Detroit area, Michigan and parts of Ohio, Indiana and Ontario, Canada. As administrator of these reproductive health centers specializing in abortion and gynecological services, Renee has helped set the national standard for excellence in patient care and education and is currently working in a partnership with the Ryan Program and many national research and training projects. As a committed political activist, Renee is also an active participant in preserving and protecting women’s reproductive and civil rights. She works closely with national organizations on State and Federal legislation, often stepping up to legally challenge threats to abortion. Deeply connected to activists and providers throughout the country, Renee receives timely abortion challenge alerts, which she shares with other providers and acts on immediately. She has served as President of MARAL and is a founding member of NAF, NCAP, ACP and ACN. Renee is known for speaking out and her voice has been heard from the halls of Congress to the protest lines that have formed in front of her own clinics and, in December 2010 with the CRR in Switzerland at the United Nations Human Rights Council to successfully secure abortion rights as human rights. Additionally, Renee has been honored by Detroit NOW, MI Chapter of NAWBO (National Assoc. of Women Business Owners) and MI Women’s Political Caucus.
Time Magazine recently said, abortion-rights activists won a victory 40 years ago with the Roe v. Wade decision, and have been losing ever since. What they didn’t say is that 2012 is the year we TOOK A STAND, organized via social media, and used it to STOP this madness!
In 1966, at age 15, I had an illegal abortion. I later became a provider. The constant violation of the rights of clients and providers led me to participate in the first Universal Periodic Review to advocate for people whose rights need to be protected.
