![]() ![]() ![]() “I learned that sometimes you have to stand up to illegitimate authority,” says Booth in The Janes, a 2022 HBO documentary about the collective. And so the underground abortion network known as the Janes was born. “Pregnant? Need Help? Call Jane,” the posters advised. She and a group of fellow activists began putting up flyers on bus stops and bulletin boards across Chicago. ![]() ![]() (Illinois, where Booth was based, only allowed “ therapeutic abortions” under specific circumstances, including when the pregnancy placed the mother’s health in jeopardy.) Despite the risks, Booth couldn’t turn her back on the women coming to her for aid. Abortion was illegal in most instances in the United States. It was eight years before the passage of Roe v. Soon after, Booth began receiving calls from other women seeking assistance. Howard, a civil rights leader and surgeon who secretly performed abortions in the city. She reached out to the Medical Committee for Human Rights, a national group dedicated to spotlighting racism and other inequities within the institution of medicine. A political activist committed to a range of social causes, Booth knew she had to do something. Overwhelmed and suicidal, the young woman was desperately trying to procure an abortion. Her friend’s sister was pregnant and needed help. In 1965, Heather Booth, a student at the University of Chicago, got a phone call. ![]()
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