Who We Are ~ History

Preterm opened its doors on March 15, 1974, a little more than a year after Roe v. Wade legalized abortion throughout the U.S. We offered abortion counseling and procedures through 10 weeks, for a fee of $160. We performed three abortions the first day. Our offices on Carnegie Ave. were designed to be homey and comfortable, decked out in golds and browns rather than clinical white.

The founders and original staff were committed women’s health activists who had previously worked with Cleveland Women’s Counseling (CWC). CWC provided health & birth control information, abortion counseling, and referrals to out-of-state clinics they had visited and approved. After Roe, this core group became concerned that no existing agency would step up to provide supportive abortion services in Cleveland, so they decided to do it themselves. In partnership with the Preterm Institute, a Boston nonprofit, they began to plan a clinic that would confirm the dignity of women and guarantee their freedom to make choices about their lives.

It was their vision that Preterm Cleveland would be:

A model built on health, not sickness
A place where women would receive affirmation and support, from both staff and each other
A facility in which participating physicians could take pride
A place where counseling would support and educate each patient
A service that would be nonprofit, tax exempt, and inexpensive
A center that would be ethical, caring and humane both for the patients and for the staff.

The clinic has been guided by these values ever since.

Under the leadership of original executive director Carolyn Buhl and her successor, Chrisse France, who took over in 1999, Preterm has continued to provide the highest quality abortion care, to participate in important studies to advance the field, and to educate and advocate for reproductive health and freedom.

Some of the highlights of our history include:

1974 Preterm successfully joined the ACLU and NOW as plaintiff against the State Auditor in order to force payment for abortion services for women on Medicaid.
1975 Research conducted with Preterm patients was written up by Dr. Sam Lane and Dr. John Wilson (CSU Psychology department) in“Conceptualizing the Abortion Decision and Moral Reasoning: Implications for Counseling.”
1976 Preterm and the ACLU successfully fought the first attempted Ohio parental consent law.
1983 After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the law requiring that second trimester abortions be performed in a hospital, Preterm began offering abortion services through 16 weeks; shortly thereafter through 17.5 weeks.
1989 Human chains kept clinic doors open and more than 100 people were arrested during the summer of "Operation Rescue."
1992 Faced with losing our longtime lease, Preterm embarked on a major capital campaign and eventually purchased a derelict building on Shaker Blvd. (where we moved in 1994).
1995 & 1998 Preterm participated in clinical trials of RU486 & mifepristone, “the abortion pill.”
1997 Preterm established the Gerson-Britton endowment to guarantee funding for medically indigent patients.
2004 Preterm acted as a Cleveland co-sponsor of the March for Women’s Lives in Washington, DC. Ten buses from Cleveland, including half of Preterm’s staff, attended.
2006 “In Their Shoes,” dramatic readings from the journals kept in Preterm waiting rooms, performed by Dobama Theatre actors, premiered at a June fundraising event.
2007 Preterm launched a three-year “Act Boldly, Live Gently” plan to transform the clinic into an energy efficient, sustainable healthcare facility.
2009 To further assist women in need of pregnancy options, Preterm began offering open adoption services in partnership with the Spence-Chapin agency in New York.
2010 will be another big year ... We are submitting application for LEED-EB (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Existing Buildings) certification, participating in important studies and education initiatives, and sponsoring an abortion speak-out to combat stigma, all while continuing to provide compassionate, high-quality abortion services.