the story of jane the legendary underground abortion service

SUNNY CHAPMAN: I went to a doctor who just treated me like dirt. It's directed by Kate Kirtz and Nell Lundy. In 1969, a group of women in Chicago decided to take matters into their own hands, setting up a hotline offering counseling and providing abortion services under the moniker “Jane.” This is an excerpt of the 1996 documentary Jane: An Abortion Service. Well, before the landmark Roe ruling in '73, women in many parts of the country who were seeking abortions turned to oftentimes dangerous alternative solutions. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court ruling that recognizes the constitutional right to an abortion. Alabama has passed a near-total ban on abortions.Īrchitects of the recent wave of draconian abortion laws say they’re aimed at overturning Roe v. In addition to Louisiana and Mississippi, Kentucky, Ohio and Georgia have also recently moved to outlaw abortions after six weeks, while Missouri passed an eight-week abortion ban earlier this week. A federal judge temporarily blocked the Mississippi ban last week. However, the ban will go into effect if neighboring Mississippi’s abortion ban is upheld. The law does not include exceptions for rape or incest. On Thursday, Louisiana became the fifth state to ban abortions after six weeks, when the Democratic governor, John Bel Edwards, signed the new measure into law.

Eventually, determined to reclaim women’s reproductive power in any way they were able, many members of Jane learned to perform abortions themselves.Īn extraordinary history by one of Jane’s members, The Story of Jane is an urgent account of the organization’s development, the conflicts within the group, and the impact its work had on both the women it helped and the members themselves.AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman. As Jane grew, so did the group’s capacity to protect its clients. Organized in 1969 and active until the opening of the first legal abortion clinics in 1973, Jane initially counseled women and referred them to abortion providers who set prices and conditions. The Story of Jane recounts the evolution of the Abortion Counseling Service, code name Jane, the underground group of heroic women that provided low-cost abortion services in Chicago in the years before the procedure was legalized.

Also the subject of the acclaimed HBO documentary The Janes.

A compelling testament to a woman’s most essential freedom-control over her own body-and to the power of women helping women. The powerful story of the women who founded and ran the legendary Chicago reproductive rights organization Abortion Counseling Service, otherwise known as Jane, written by one of its members.

The story of jane the legendary underground abortion service