Calling Jane: the life and death of a women's illegal abortion service

In May, 1972, seven Chicago women were arrested and charged with performing illegal abortions. Over the course of the preceding five years, the members of Jane, as this illegal abortion collective was denoted, had arranged, assisted and performed nearly 15,000 illegal abortions. The very fact that Jane existed as long as it did and assisted as many women as it did, was evidence of the central role that abortion and other reproductive decisions play in women's daily lives. Jane began amid the political and social discontent of the late 1960s. Like the Chicago Women's Liberation Union, Jane was founded by women helping other women. This action was, in effect, a continuation of the centuries old women's health network. Records of the Chicago Women's Liberation Union, words and deeds of the city's feminists and interviews with members of Jane, permit a consideration of important medical, philosophical and historical issues that surround the turbulent issue of abortion. In this setting the boundaries between and definitions of lay and medical practitioners become indistinct, the differences between women-centered and physician-centered medical care become more obvious, and at the very least Jane provides evidence of a model system by which women a generation ago successfully confronted restrictive abortion practices.