Eventually, determined to reclaim women's reproductive power in any way they were able, many members of Jane learned to perform abortions themselves.Īn extraordinary history by one of Jane's members, The Story of Jane is an urgent account of the organization's development, the conflicts within the group, and the impact its work had on both the women it helped and the members themselves. As Jane grew, so did the group's capacity to protect its clients. Organized in 1969 and active until the opening of the first legal abortion clinics in 1973, Jane initially counseled women and referred them to abortion providers who set prices and conditions. The Story of Jane recounts the evolution of the Abortion Counseling Service, code name Jane, the underground group of heroic women that provided low-cost abortion services in Chicago in the years before the procedure was legalized.

Also the subject of the acclaimed HBO documentary The Janes.

A compelling testament to a woman's most essential freedom-control over her own body-and to the power of women helping women. By the fall of 1967, radical women realized they needed to form their own movement.The powerful story of the women who founded and ran the legendary Chicago reproductive rights organization Abortion Counseling Service, otherwise known as Jane, written by one of its members. #4 In 1965, women in the Movement began raising the issue of women’s second-class status in the Movement and in society in general.

She was active on civil liberties and civil rights issues in college. She was raised on the stories of her great-aunt Lillian, a suffragette, who had once chained herself to the gates of the White House. #3 Jenny had been an advocate of women’s rights for most of her adult life. Then, in their boldest step, the members took control of the entire process and began performing the abortions themselves. She was afraid that if abortion was made into a women’s issue, women might become alienated from women’s liberation. Determined to lower cost and increase safety, Jane eventually put an abortionist 'on contract,' and learned, while assisting him, the art of his work. #2 Jenny had never viewed abortion as a women’s liberation issue, even though she knew how important it was to address the problems women faced. Jenny was twenty-six, the mother of two young children, and had been suffering from lymphatic cancer, Hodgkin’s disease, for the past two years. The members of 'Jane' were lay-persons who learned how to perform abortions themselves. Here she draws on her personal recollections and interviews with Jane members and clients. In 1969 this underground abortion service began operation in Chicago, four years before Roe v. The sterilization procedure was a success, and you’re eight weeks pregnant. Kaplan, who is now a lay midwife, joined Jane in 1971 as a counselor. Sample Book Insights: #1 The first voice Jenny heard after the anesthetic wore off was the surgeon’s.

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

The story of jane laura kaplan