PHOTO Courtesy HBO Promotional Materials
“The Janes,” a recent HBO documentary, follows the experiences and activities of a group of college aged women in Chicago in the 1970s who formed an underground abortion counseling service that they call the “Jane Collective.”
The goal of the Janes was to provide women with safer and more affordable abortions at a time when it was still illegal in most of the United States. By 1973 they had helped over 11,000 women terminate unwanted pregnancies. As the film explains, they had an excellent rate of patient safety, unlike the back alley abortions that were common at the time.
The seven main organizers of The Janes were arrested in 1972 and faced up to 110 years in prison. The case took time to work its way through the system and eventually charges were dropped when the Supreme Court gave women the right to abortion in the Roe v. Wade case decision in 1973.
This year, nearly 50 years after Roe, in a new case known as Dobbs, the Supreme Court took abortion rights away again, making the film all the more relevant to our times.
The film premiered 16 days before the Dobbs decision was handed down on June 24. The story is told through interviews with former Jane members, their patients, spouses, and those in the medical field at the time.
In the documentary Heather Booth, founder of the Jane Collective, reflects on a time before the Janes and how they came to be.
Booth said, “A friend mentioned his sister was pregnant, nearly suicidal, and needed an abortion, so I helped find her a doctor. A few weeks later, someone else called…the word had spread.”
As more women began seeking Booth’s help it became overwhelming to do alone. Booth was involved in a multiple movement groups, so she recruited other women and began the abortion counseling service.
Eleanor Olivers, a member of the Janes, volunteered to use her phone number for ads in an underground paper. She explained, “Let’s change it so they don’t ask for Eleanor. How about Jane? Nobody’s named that anymore, it’s a nice simple name,” and the Jane Collective was born.
Co-director of the Janes documentary, Tia Lessin has been an activist for abortion rights for over 30 year. In the documentary Lessin shows “the septic abortion” wards where people who had failed illegal abortions went to seek medical care and often died.
“It’s not only a story of tragedy, but also a story of resistance and sisterhood and community. People who said ‘No. We are not only going to talk about it, we are actually going to do something!’”-Tia Lessin, Co-Director of "The Janes"
Lessin told The VOICE, “We are going to see what we saw in the 60s, people dying, people injured, people infected.”
She says that banning abortion does not stop it, it only stops people from getting safe and legal ones.
“Right now as we speak abortions banned in 14 states, that’s going to grow day by day unless we take to the streets, take to the ballot boxes and make a change.” Lessin says.
She hopes the Janes inspire a younger generation to rise up to stop these injustices.
Chole Asack, a former Lawrenceville, NJ resident, now first year English Major at Cornell University, says she watched the film because she was interested in learning more about these issues.
“Even though I had learned about it and read about it a little bit I don’t think I fully understood the process of what it was like to get an abortion at a time when abortion was illegal.”
Asack’s social media posts about the Jane Collective caught the eye of Mercer student Sofia Garcia. Garcia then became interested in learning more about the film.
She says, “This idea really resonated with me because these issues are so important and its really good that the media and filmmakers are shedding light on its history”
The Janes members were ordinary women who saw a problem and provided a temporary solution. There are many reasons why someone may choice to seek out an abortion. The documentary allows viewers to further understand what life was like when making that choice was illegal.
Lessin explains, “It’s not only a story of tragedy, but also a story of resistance and sisterhood and community. People who said ‘No. We are not only going to talk about it, we are actually going to do something!’”
Visit www.thejanesfilm.com for more information about the documentary
