About Northland Family Planning

Hello, my name is Renee Chelian, and these are the guiding questions I ask myself and the Northland staff every day. I believe that our health center has to be the best…the cleanest, the safest, the most medically competent, the most compassionate. Why? The answer is simple: Because if someone we love needs an abortion or a reproductive health care provider, the ONLY place we want them to go is Northland. Every day, we have to be good enough to take care of the ones we love.

In 1976, I opened Northland Family Planning Center, a place where patients could access affordable, high-quality reproductive health care, including abortion, delivered by compassionate, well-trained physicians. I opened the center because I never wanted another woman to have to go through what I did.

In 1966, when I was 15, I had an illegal abortion. It was a very brave decision that my parents helped me with. My father took me because my mother was six months pregnant and he was afraid for her safety as well as mine. When I had my abortion, we met a stranger in a parking lot. My father and I were blindfolded and taken to some kind of a warehouse. When the blindfold was removed, there were many other girls waiting there, too. No one talked…we were all too scared. It was dangerous, it was expensive. My parents could have been arrested because in 1966 providing or having an abortion was a crime. Even caring for a patient who had an abortion was a criminal act.

I don’t know who did my abortion…I never saw his face. I’m not even sure if he was a doctor. Many women who had these “back alley” abortions were left with serious complications or infertile; many died. I was lucky. Of course, my family and I could never tell anyone about my abortion out of the fear and the stigma associated with a crime that so many women were also risking their lives for.

I was willing to risk my life for a second chance. I didn’t know then that this experience would change me forever. I understood then, as I do now, that a pregnancy decision is about facing the biggest responsibility of a woman’s life: when to be a mother. Deciding what to do about a pregnancy, whether it is motherhood, adoption or abortion, is about families and is a pivotal moment in our reproductive lives. It’s not just about how it feels to be pregnant or whether you want to be pregnant, it’s about whether or not you can or want to be a mother now, at this time in your life.

When I became pregnant, I was able to approach my parents. They allowed me a second chance to achieve my dreams. I knew that I did not want to have a child at that time and was willing to risk my life for it. It was my choice, one I have never regretted. I am so grateful to my brave parents because without them, I could never have managed. I knew that day that women deserve something better. We deserve safe reproductive health care in an atmosphere of dignity and respect. When abortions became legal in New York, I began working with a Detroit-area physician who flew to New York on weekends, performing abortions in a safe, legal environment. In 1976, three years after the Supreme Court legalized abortion nationally, I opened Northland Family Planning Center.

My vision was to create a health center that honors our strength, trusts our hearts, listens to our dreams and cares for each of us as a whole person. I dreamed of a place that was so clean and so welcoming that any story of bad or illegal abortions would be washed away. Our health centers would be pretty and feel personal, so that the people who came to us would see that we care, not just in what we say, but how we look.

Today, my dream is a reality and so much more. The three Northland Family Planning Centers are my life dream and my contribution to making the world a better place. They are places where people are treated with the dignity and respect they deserve, where our patients have access to comprehensive pregnancy and birth control options. My greatest joy has been watching the people in my life blossom and grow…my own daughters, the wonderful members of our staff and now their children as well. Northland Family Planning Centers have become a place where pregnant people, in some of the most distressing times of their lives, can come and be safe to explore their emotions and options without fear of intimidation or harassment.