The Story of Jane: The Legendary Underground Feminist Abortion Service

Laura Kaplan

Dec 2016 · Sold by Pantheon

About this ebook

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. A compelling testament to a woman's most essential freedom—control over her own body—and to the power of women helping women. • Also the subject of the acclaimed HBO documentary The Janes.

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. 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. As Jane grew, so did the group's capacity to protect its clients. Eventually, determined to reclaim women's reproductive power in any way they were able, many members of Jane learned to perform abortions themselves.
 
An 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.

About the author

Laura Kaplan was a member of Jane and founding member of the Emma Goldman Women's Health Center in Chicago. After moving to rural Wisconsin, she attended home births as a lay-midwife and established a shelter-based program for battered women. When she moved to the East Coast, she worked as an advocate for nursing home residents and was the managed care project director for Citizen Action of New York. She is on the board of the National Women's Health Network and has been involved in a variety of community projects.