Internationalist Books and Community Center

Join Students United for Reproductive Justice (SURJ) for a screening of Jane: An Abortion Service this Wednesday!

Dinner will be provided!

JANE: AN ABORTION SERVICE, is a fascinating documentary about a secret, women-run abortion service that flourished in the midwest in the late ’60s and early ’70s during a time of illegal, and often deadly abortions. A Sundance Film Festival selection, JANE: AN ABORTION SERVICE was produced and directed by Kate Kirtz and Nell Lundy.

For the first time, the story of JANE is told by those who operated and were served by the collective, most of whom have never spoken publicly about JANE before.

Heather Booth, then a student at the University of Chicago involved in civil rights and antiwar movements, found herself sought out by a few young women who were pregnant, scared, and desperate. They had somehow heard that Booth knew of a safe abortionist. Soon others began to call, prompting Booth and several other young feminists to found JANE, an anonymous abortion service that provided counseling and acted as the go-between for pregnant women and doctors willing to perform the procedure.

The women of JANE learned to perform illegal abortions themselves. Eventually, the underground collective performed over 12,000 safe, affordable abortions. Word of the illegal alternative was spread through word-of-mouth, cryptic advertisements, and even by members of Chicago’s police, clergy, and medical establishment.

Little remains to document the organization’s clandestine existence. Most of JANE’s records were destroyed to protect the participants, leaving the women themselves to tell their stories. JANE: AN ABORTION SERVICE utilizes in-depth interviews, archival footage, and the few remaining personal effects to bare witness and illuminate this once-hidden refuge.