Two New Films Spotlight the Jane Network, Which Provided Abortion Access Pre-Roe

On May 3, 1972, seven women in Chicago were arrested for homicide, for performing abortions that were illegal at the time. On May 2, 2022 (nearly 50 years to the day later), Politico broke the news that the U.S. Supreme Court appears to be preparing to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 U.S. Supreme Court case that made abortion legal in the United States. The arrested women were part of an underground network called Jane that provided anonymous and safe abortions in Chicago. Ultimately, all charges were dropped against the women because Roe v. Wade rendered their case moot. The Jane network disbanded in 1973, since its underground abortion services were no longer necessary.

The Jane network’s origins go back to 1965, when feminist activist Heather Booth helped a friend’s sister get an abortion while Booth was a student at the University of Chicago. It led to the formation of the underground network where women and girls could get anonymous and safe abortions and counseling, by calling a phone number and asking for “Jane” as a code word. It’s estimated that the Jane network performed about 11,000 abortions, with none of the women and girls dying from any of the procedures.

There have been several movies made about the Jane network, which eventually became known as the Abortion Counseling Service of the Chicago Women's Liberation Union. These films include the 1995 documentary Jane: An Abortion Service (directed by Kate Kirtz and Nell Lundy), a no-frills compilation of interviews of women who were members or clients of the network, as well as one male ally. Another is Ask for Jane, a 2019 drama written and directed by Rachel Carey, which focuses on fictional characters based on the real people of the Jane network. Two new films about the Jane network — The Janes and Call Jane — are coming out this year. These movies serve as reminders of what life was like in the U.S. when the law regulated an individual’s reproductive right to choose if or when to have a child.

The Janes, directed by Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes, is a comprehensive documentary that got rave reviews after its 2022 Sundance Film Festival premiere. In it, the creators interview several former members and clients of the Jane network, as well some female allies and a few men who had direct knowledge of the network’s activities. Booth, Judith Arcana, Martha Scott, Marie Leaner, Laura Kaplan, Rev. Dr. Donna Schaper, Donna Stevens, and obstetrician/gynecologist Dr. Allan Weiland are among those interviewed. The documentary also reveals some horror stories about deaths at Chicago hospitals that handled patients who needed emergency treatment from botched abortions that were not done by members of the Jane network. People who survived illegal abortion injuries and who were sent to these hospitals also had the additional threat of being arrested, since the hospitals were mandated by law to report patients suspected of having illegal abortions. The Janes is available on HBO and HBO Max, as of June 8.

The drama Call Jane, directed by Phyllis Nagy and written by Hayley Schore and Roshan Sethi, premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival to mostly positive reviews from critics. Just like in Ask for Jane, the characters in Call Jane are fictional but are based on real people. Elizabeth Banks stars as Joy Griffin (a character partially inspired by Arcana), a homemaker mother who gets involved in the Jane network and keeps it a secret from her attorney husband, Will Griffin, played by Chris Messina. Sigourney Weaver, Wunmi Mosaku, and Evangeline Young portray other members. Roadside Attractions will release Call Jane in U.S. theaters on October 28.

The Janes co-directors Lessin and Pildes say it was crucial to center the documentary’s narrative on the women who were members and clients of the Jane network, rather than people who were outsiders to it. The Jane network’s workers, who were nearly all women, came from a variety of backgrounds, but most were middle-class or upper-class, and they were often students, homemakers, or activists.

There were often disparities in race and social class between the clients and the privileged, mostly white women who were operating the Jane network. Race and social class often affected the Jane network’s community outreach as the network’s advertising (usually on flyers and via word-of-mouth) expanded from college campuses to communities with large percentages of low-income people or people of color. The films mention that Jane members were urged by people inside and outside of the network to be mindful of challenges experienced by less privileged people who needed their services. For example, a scene in Call Jane shows members debating over and eventually agreeing to give services at a discount or for free to people who couldn’t afford the full price.

Lessin tells Women’s Media Center: “There’s no way to talk about abortion rights and abortion access without talking about the barriers simply because people are poor. Black and Brown people are disproportionately the most harmed when abortion care is restricted. It was very important to us to tell that piece of the story. And it remains true today.”

The Janes and Call Jane show that there were few women of color in leadership positions in the network. In Call Jane, the issue of race comes up in a scene where the characters played by Weaver and Mosaku have a heated discussion about racism and how Black women in particular were being sidelined within the group. And in The Janes, Leaner (who is African American) shares her thoughts about being one of the few Black women who was part of the Jane network for years. Leaner says that despite the lack of women of color in nearly all of the network’s leadership positions, she felt more empowered in the Jane network than she would have felt if she had joined the Black Panther Party, which she says was a group that expected women to be subservient to men. In The Janes, Leaner is credited with getting attorney Jo-Anne Wolfson to represent the Jane members who were arrested in 1972.

All the movies about the Jane network affirm that the group had a policy to be nonjudgmental and empathetic to all the people who needed their services. The emphasis wasn’t on finding out why a pregnancy was being terminated but on how to best help the usually terrified women and girls who needed these services. Several of the women who used the network’s services say in their interviews for The Janes that it made a huge difference to get help from a group consisting mostly of women, in a calm and supportive atmosphere.

The Janes and Call Jane both touch on the impact of men on the movement — as allies, partners of clients, and abortion providers. What hasn’t changed much from before Roe v. Wade is that men still comprise the overwhelming majority of lawmakers who determine U.S. abortion laws on federal and state levels. The Janes filmmakers say that while some clients kept their abortions a secret from their partners, many of the men who knew about the abortions were supportive, and they often paid for the procedures.

In an era when men were the vast majority of obstetricians, gynecologists, and attorneys, it was not unusual for men in these professions to be allies of the Jane network. “There were lawyers who helped the Janes stay out of jail,” Lessin comments. “There were doctors advising the Janes and referring patients to the Janes. There were clergy involved in referring people and counseling women.”

Lessin comments on what revelation surprised her the most in making The Janes: “The mob [Mafia] involvement in the abortion services in Chicago at that time. It makes total sense when something is illegal — all sorts of nefarious people feel that they can profit from it. In a lot of cases, it meant there were some very unscrupulous [people] providing care. How scary is that?”

Call Jane touches on this topic of con artists taking advantage of abortion being illegal. The movie shows that the network hired an abortion provider named Dean (played by Cory Michael Smith), who presented himself as a medical doctor, but the women in the network eventually found out that he didn’t have a medical license. When Dean demanded more money than the women could afford, it motivated Joy Griffin of the Jane network to learn how to perform abortions, and then she taught other women in the group.

The Janes documentary includes an interview with a man using the alias Mike, who admits he did abortions for the Jane network under the name Dr. Kaplan, even though he was not a doctor, and he stopped working with the group because he wanted to be paid more money. Some of the real women of the Jane network also say that they began doing abortion procedures for clients out of necessity and to prevent other people from overcharging women for these services.

The Janes also gives disturbing details of Chicago hospital septic wards that existed before Roe v. Wade, when women and girls with botched illegal abortions would often be unloaded in overcrowded rooms and sometimes wouldn‘t make it out alive. The Janes co-director Pildes tells Women’s Media Center that uncovering this information was the most surprising finding for her. “That was a very quantifiable, grim reality for us to look at, and think about, and see footage of, and speak to doctors about, as a result of women in this country not having the right to make this [abortion] decision for themselves,” Pildes comments.

“We made a film that we hope will move people not just to tears but to action,” says Lessin. “At the very least, we hope that it will make people think about what it was like in this country at a time when there was no federal protection over abortion care.” And although reproductive rights and safe access to abortions are often made into political issues, the filmmakers of The Janes hope that that the documentary shows that no matter how people feel about family planning, abortion is a health issue that can permanently affect an untold number of people in their everyday lives. “I hope that the majority of this country that believe in a woman’s right to choose are reminded that they have to use their voices,” Pildes states. “They have to engage and speak up.”