Family Planning Australia’s (FPA) Dubbo clinic celebrated the organisation’s 100th year of operation during NSW Women’s Week earlier this month, with noted activist and women’s rights campaigner Wendy McCarthy AC telling dignitaries and staff the organisation had “changed the rules for all of us”.

The lunchtime seminar on Wednesday, March 4, was beamed from the organisation’s Newington Health Hub across the state to various clinics, including Dubbo, so all staff could celebrate the milestone and the organisation’s significant achievements.

“[FPA] opened its doors in 1926, launched the nation’s first birth control clinic in 1933 and brought “the pill” [contraceptive] to Australia in 1961,” Wendy said.

“These advances were happening at a time when birth control, abortion and reproductive rights were not part of the daily conversation. FPA never shied away from starting the tough conversations and finding ways to provide people with the care they needed,” she added.

“FPA has been at the forefront of [Australia’s] journey into sexual health, women’s rights and reproductive education. [It] was and still is the place you go to for trusted advice; it has survived for 100 years because it has always brought crucial services to women, often at times when there was simply nothing else.”

Elected to the FPA Board in 1975 and later the first professional media, information and education officer – a role she shared with Antoinette Wyllie – Wendy has spent over five decades championing the rights of women and girls.

FPA CEO Sue Shilbury said taking time to reflect on the nation’s sexual health journey during NSW Women’s Week was important as so much of the organisation’s history was connected to the emergence of women’s rights and reproductive autonomy.

“In the 1970s when FPA started making contraception available to all women, regardless of if they were married or had their husband’s permission, this was literally groundbreaking and it wasn’t until 1996 that society formally caught up with the Married Persons Equality of Status Act giving all people, regardless of gender, the right to consent to their own medical treatment,” Sue said.

“We’ve been offering sex education and talking about consent since 1942 and in 2019 we championed the NSW Parliament’s decriminalisation of abortion.

“We know there is still work to do. Women continue to face healthcare challenges such as medical misogyny, low rebates for critical procedures and medications and a lack of understanding for significant issues like menopause. However, when we look at the progress that has been made organisationally and socially, it is still very humbling.

“Caring for women and their unique health needs will always be a priority for us but over time we have certainly shifted and are now looking beyond reproduction to serving a range of ages, sexualities and health issues,” she concluded.