If they were capable of experiencing basic human kindness or compassion, I’d say the six conservative Supreme Court Justices — or any staunch anti-abortion lawmaker — should be forced to screen “The Janes.” The new documentary from Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes revisits pre-Roe v. Wade Chicago, while offering a sobering glimpse of the probable future of reproductive rights in the U.S.
Before Jane — an underground, women-led collective that provided safe, affordable, illegal abortions from 1969 to 1973 — going to the Mob was your best bet if you were pregnant, didn’t want to be, and lived in Chicago. You’d have to pay a surly stranger $500-1,000 (approximately $4,600-9,200 today), and the chances of you ending up in the hospital’s packed septic abortion ward, or dying there, were pretty high.
But then a group of mostly white, mostly upper-middle-class women who were active in the anti-war and civil rights movements decided they had “a philosophical obligation to disrespect a law that disrespected women.” These soldiers on the frontlines of the fight for reproductive justice — many of whom had had illegal abortions, and horror stories to go with them — came together to provide women the judgement-free, safe abortions they didn’t have access to themselves. Utilizing a system built on empathy, warmth, a pay-what-you-can credo, code words, and frequently-changed locations, Jane performed an estimated 11,000 illegal abortions. For the most part, according to “The Janes,” they did so without incident or drama.
It’s an odd thing, watching this doc at this moment, when we’re expecting Roe to be struck down any day now. I got a lump in the my throat when former Jane members explained that, once Roe v. Wade was decided, their services, happily, were no longer needed. The activist feminist in me was pumped to be reminded that, no matter what the Supreme Court decides in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, folks with uteruses will find a way to take care of one another, legality be damned. The academic feminist in me recognized history repeating itself as the Janes told their story: once abortion became legal in New York State in 1970, anyone who could afford to travel there to terminate their pregnancy (i.e. white, well-off women) did so; ergo, the majority of Jane’s clientele were poor women and women of color. It’s no secret that, if Roe is overturned, Black and Brown women, women of lower socioeconomic status, and other marginalized communities will suffer the most.
“The Janes” is a bittersweet movie for a bittersweet time. Women, folks with uteruses, and our allies are organizing and making it clear in no uncertain terms that our bodies are our own. But the fate of our rights, as laid out in federal law, are in the hands of six unrepentant assholes. It’s only appropriate that Lessin and Pildes’ documentary offers hope, as well as a practical plan if it turns out that hope just isn’t enough.
“The Janes” premieres tonight, June 8, at 9 p.m. EST on HBO and HBO Max.
