1960s National Spotlight

Back Alley Abortion Kills, and the Janes Step Into the Breach

Young women in Chicago risk their own liberty to provide reproductive health care to strangers when doctors won’t.

Though the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1965 Griswold ruling said married couples should have legal access to oral contraceptives, everyone else would have to wait until 1972. A tiny minority of women could obtain an abortion through their doctors. But for others, an illegal one–usually from a provider controlled by organized crime–could cost upwards of $1,000 ($9,400 in today’s dollars). And of course many people with unwanted pregnancies took things into their own hands. Every large hospital had a septic abortion ward to handle the huge volume of patients injured or infected by self-induced or illegal abortions or attempts. Women were desperate. Even a married woman could be fired for being pregnant, and if you were a college student, you’d almost certainly get thrown out. In 1965, Heather Booth, a Chicago student active in the civil rights and anti-war movements, was asked to help a friend of a friend find a way to get an abortion. She asked around and ended up connecting with T.R.M. Howard, a surgeon and civil rights leader who come to Chicago after fleeing Mississippi for his life. He performed abortions at his medical practice as an extension of his commitment to human rights. Word spread, and Booth had to recruit others to help her field all the calls. By 1969 the group was circulating ads and flyers reading “Pregnant? Don’t Want to Be? Call Jane.” Using code names, blindfolds, and tag-team transportation to safe houses, the “Janes” helped women end unwanted pregnancies. They settled into working with one regular provider, known as “Dr Kaplan,” who they discovered later was no doctor. When he balked at providing some abortions for free and others on a sliding scale based on need, they learned to do abortions themselves and severed the connection. The Janes had offered counseling and kindness, as well as child care and refreshments, eventually providing an estimated 11,000 safe, affordable abortions. On May 4, 1972, the Chicago Police raided a Janes safe house and arrested seven of the group’s members. Their attorney, Jo Anne Wolfson, knew a Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade would be coming down and stalled while she mounted a defense. In January 1973 the court legalized abortion, and the charges against the Janes were dropped. Within a year, septic abortion wards became obsolete.

Both images courtesy of HBOPhotos of the Janes in 1972