HE NAMED ME MALALA
Tia Lessen, Emma Pildes

June 24th, 2022

The Jane Collective was an underground group of women who provided safe access to abortion in Chicago before the procedure became legal in 1973. It was founded in 1965 by Heather Booth, after she helped her friend and fellow student at the University of Chicago connect with a doctor who was willing to perform the operation. The collective, then, came as the result of a whisper network of women seeking the same treatment. Over the course of its seven-year run, the collective helped over 11,000 women undergo abortions, at times serving 40 women a week. However, their illegal activity was monitored by law enforcement agents and, in 1972, seven of its members were arrested for their connection to the group, leading to its end. It was only six months later, however, that the 1973 bill Roe vs. Wade passed and the charges against these women were dropped. The Janes, a new documentary from Emma Pildes and Tia Lessin, explores the history of the collective, and the historical and personal effects of the group’s work.

For the last Friday of June, please join us in watching The Janes.