‘Pregnant? Don’t want to be? Call Jane.’
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 13 May 2022
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In the years before Roe v. Wade, the group known as Jane helped more than 11,000 Chicago women get abortions. We look back at the group and talk with one of its members as activists and health advocates mobilize in anticipation of the end of Roe.
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In the years before Roe v. Wade guaranteed the constitutional right to an abortion, a group of women banded together in Chicago to help others access the procedure illegally. Their fliers read things like: “Pregnant? Don’t want to be? Call Jane.”
Jane became the group’s code name. They estimate that between 1969 and 1973 they helped around 11,000 women get abortions, and many members of the group learned to perform abortions themselves.
Laura Kaplan was a member of Jane from 1971 to ’73 and wrote a book on the group’s history called “The Story of Jane: The Legendary Underground Feminist Abortion Service.”
Today on the show, we talk to Laura about the dangers women faced before abortions were constitutionally protected, how the underground group evolved, and how she’s making sense of this moment as activists and health advocates mobilize in anticipation of the end of Roe.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | When Laura Kaplan was 24 years old, she found out about an underground network of women. |
| 0:07.5 | They had a very simple code name, Jane. |
| 0:13.4 | This was 1971, about two years before the Supreme Court decided Roe v Wade. |
| 0:18.3 | Laura was living in Chicago where abortion was illegal, as it was in much of the U.S. |
| 0:24.3 | She first heard about Jane from her friend Alice. |
| 0:27.4 | Alice had seen an ad in an underground newspaper that said, |
| 0:30.4 | pregnant, don't want to be called Jane. |
| 0:34.1 | So Alice called the number. |
| 0:36.9 | Jane was helping women get abortions, women like Alice. |
| 0:40.4 | And afterwards Alice told Laura about it. |
| 0:44.1 | She was so excited by the experience that she was almost literally bouncing off the walls. |
| 0:50.8 | I mean, she had just had an illegal abortion and here she is like thrilled and delighted. |
| 0:58.0 | Laura said Alice had felt cared for. |
| 1:01.3 | What she explained to me is that the experience was so unique and so unusual. |
| 1:07.2 | There was so much education and it was so centered on her. |
| 1:13.4 | She'd never had an experience like that and it was mind blowing in a way. |
| 1:20.8 | And Laura wanted to be a part of that, part of Jane. |
| 1:27.6 | From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post Reports. |
| 1:31.3 | I'm Martine Powers. |
| 1:33.1 | It's Friday, May 13. |
| 1:35.3 | Today, the story of Jane from one of its members, Laura Kaplan. |
| 1:39.7 | She also wrote a book about the group and she estimates that Jane helped more than 11,000 people |
... |
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