York's first Maternal Health Center was established in 1935. Family physicians referred women, only after they had five children, to receive family planning services. Services offered to women included prenatal care, blood tests and gynecological exams.
The York health center was modeled after Margaret Sanger's Planned Parenthood center established in 1916 in New York City. Margaret Sanger, a public heath nurse and family planning advocate, believed family planning services were essential to the health and welfare of financially and physically burdened women. She advocated that every woman should have the right to decide whether and when to bear children and that every child should be a wanted child.
Today, Planned Parenthood of Central Pennsylvania continues to provide primary and reproductive health services, educational programs, outreach and peer education as well as advocacy to women, teens and men in Adams, Franklin, Fulton and York counties. Planned Parenthood of Central Pennsylvania is proud of its family planning legacy and the celebration of its 75th Anniversary in 2010.
