Description

Our premiere episode begins with Chicago Women’s Health Center’s roots in the feminist health movement of the 1960s. Terri Kapsalis, author and long-time CWHC Collective Member, describes the clinic’s model of care, its historic context, and how it remains at the heart of our work 45-years later.

How does CWHC continue to create a place for clients to receive health care that’s actually about care and not profit? What is the historic foundation for CWHC’s approach and why is this approach as important as ever? And...why “mirror and a flashlight”?

Join Terri as she explores these questions, and tune in throughout this season to learn more about how each of CWHC's programs practice the model of care that has been evolving since 1975.

A Note from CWHC: This episode contains archival audio that identifies Andrea Smith as a member of the Cherokee Nation, a false claim made by Smith that has been harmful, as documented in The New York Times', "The Native Scholar Who Wasn't."

Learn more about Chicago Women’s Health Center and this podcast on our website at chicagowomenshealthcenter.org. 

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Mirror and a Flashlight is made possible by our community of support. Our special thanks to Corbett Vs Dempsey, Women Unite!, Early to Bed, Women & Children First Bookstore, Laura McAlpine Consulting for Growth, Mats Gustafsson and Catalytic Sound. 

Additional thanks to the generous clients who shared their experiences.

This podcast was produced by Ari Mejia and edited by A.J. Barks, Sarah Rebecca Gaglio, and Terri Kapsalis, with additional editorial support from Lisa Schergen.

Make our work possible with a donation here.

Learn more about Terri Kapsalis and her work at terrikapsalis.net.   

Archival tape featured in this episode:
- Black Panther Health Clinics, featuring Fred Hampton
- Taking Our Bodies Back: The women’s health movement, from Cambridge Documentary Films
- Andrea Smith at Women’s Worlds 2011

For more information on some of the topics discussed in this episode, we recommend the following resources:

The History of the Women’s Health Movement

• Our Bodies, Our Selves
• Bodies of Knowledge: Sexuality, Reproduction, and  Women’s Health in the Second Wave by Wendy Kline
• Witches, Midwives, and Nurses by Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English
• “The Campaign to Eliminate the Midwife” by Kate Dawley
• Women of Color and the Reproductive Rights Movement by Jennifer Nelson
• More than Medicine: A History of the Feminist Women’s Health Movement by Jennifer Nelson
• New View of a Woman’s Body: A Fully Illustrated Guide by the Federation Of Feminist Women's Health Centers

History of Gynecology and Sterilization Abuses in the United States

• Medical Bondage: Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology by Deirdre Cooper Owens
• No Mas Bebes (2015), directed by Renee Tajima-Peña
• Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide by Andrea Smith
• Reproductive Justice: An Introduction by Loretta Ross and Rickie Solinger
• Witches, Witch Hunts, and Women by Silvia Federici
• Killing the Black Body by Dorothy E. Roberts
• The Face of Women's Health: Helen Rodriguez-Trias by Joyce Wilcox

Black Panthers & Young Lords Health Clinics

• Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight Against Medical Discrimination by Alondra Nelson
• Hillbilly Nationalists, Urban Race Rebels, and Black Power: Community Organizing in Radical Times by Amy Sonnie and James Tracy

Jane, the Underground Abortion Service

• The Story of Jane: The Legendary Underground Abortion Service by Laura Kaplan