The Los Angeles Free Clinic
Fairfax’s Jewish community’s was largely tolerant of the Los Angeles Free Clinic. As volunteer Barry Leibowitz recalled, the local community typically had a“live and let live” attitude when it came to the clinic. And yet, the clinic’s particular location on Fairfax Avenue did occasionally prove problematic. Next door to the clinic was a Jewish senior center; many involved with the senior center were nervous about the kind of clientele (“all these wild-haired youth”) that the clinic attracted. Furthermore, Fairfax High School officials and parents were uncomfortable with the clinic’s offering of free birth control.
During these foundational years, the clinic was constantly struggling with debt and searching for ways to pay for rent, often relying upon rock concert benefit shows, radio marathons, and donations from sympathetic individuals for sources of funding. The establishment of the fundraising-focused Friends of the Los Angeles Free Clinic in 1973, however, help to stabilize the clinic’s finances and support its move to a larger location on Beverly Boulevard.