Renee Chelian
Renee Chelian has been a passionate leader in protecting and advancing access to reproductive health options since before the historic 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, traveling every weekend with a Detroit physician to Buffalo, NY to assist pregnant people seeking abortion care from a five-state radius, plus Canada. After Roe, she worked in one of the first clinics providing abortion care in Detroit. In 1976, she left and founded Northland Family Planning Centers. These three metro Detroit clinics provide medically safe abortion care throughout the state of Michigan and surrounding states. In a career of more than 50 years, Renee’s work has helped set the national standard for excellence in patient care and education.
Renee’s advocacy for abortion and reproductive health is known worldwide. In 2010, she testified with the Center for Reproductive Rights at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland and successfully fought for recognition of abortion providers as human rights defenders. She has been the recipient of several prestigious awards including The David Gunn Lifetime Achievement Award from The Abortion Care Network (2012), the George R. Tiller Award for Excellence from the National Abortion Federation (2018) and the Christopher Tietze Humanitarian Award for her lifetime of achievements from the National Abortion Federation (2023). She is a founding member of both the National Abortion Federation and the National Coalition of Abortion Providers (now, Abortion Care Network). Most recently, Renee played a vital role in helping create and pass the Reproductive Freedom for All ballot initiative here in Michigan.
