Jane

[Organic Revolution]

The Jane Collective was an underground abortion service which operated in Chicago, Illinois, from 1969 to 1973. The collective was started by women when they realized that many illegal abortion providers were not doctors. Since illegal abortions were also dangerous and very expensive, founding members of the collective believed that they could provide safer, cheaper abortions. During the years which Jane operated, the collective performed more than 12,000 abortions, for about $25.00 per procedure — on loan, if the woman was unable to pay at the time.

In 1972, the collective was raided, and the members who performed abortions jailed. The remaining members arranged to take a bus load of women to Philadelphia, for abortions to be performed by Harvey Karman and an assistant. The abortions were performed at an abortion clinic that was openly operating, in violation of Pennsylvania law. A public television crew from a station in New York filmed the procedures, at Karman's invitation, to document his new "super coil" abortion technique. A local woman's group, outraged that the women were being subjected to an untested and possibly unsafe abortion method, protested outside the clinic, letting the air out of the bus tires. When one of the women had to be hospitalized in Pennsylvania, local health officials contacted the Centers for Disease Control, which investigated and found that 9 of the 13 patients not lost to follow-up had suffered complications.

The collective gradually disbanded after Roe v Wade made abortion legal throughout the United States in 1973.

I met the founder and and one of the doctors last night at a Jane play... what do you think of jane?

[chimx]

Sounds neat, and better than the alternatives at the time.

I have heard of a similar international project done by a like-minded group. A group of doctors and such own a boat, and port in areas where abortion is illegal. Women board the boat, and they are taken out to international waters where the procedure is performed. I don't recall the name of the group though. Does anyone know?

[YSR]

What's most interesting about Jane to me is the conversations that continued after Roe v. Wade. Some of the collective members thought that the state legalization of abortion did not help women enough. Their concerns about the sterile, male-dominated space that is the hospital made me think a lot about what exactly "good healthcare" is and how we as a society can provide it. A legal and state-supported health care system that is non-feminist is not enough.

[ComradeOm]

Originally posted by [email protected] 19, 2007 11:00 pm
I have heard of a similar international project done by a like-minded group. A group of doctors and such own a boat, and port in areas where abortion is illegal. Women board the boat, and they are taken out to international waters where the procedure is performed. I don't recall the name of the group though. Does anyone know?
Women On Waves. They operate (operated?) out of the Netherlands.

[SPK]

Originally posted by Organic [email protected] 19, 2007 05:39 pm
The Jane Collective was an underground abortion service which operated in Chicago, Illinois, from 1969 to 1973. The collective was started by women when they realized that many illegal abortion providers were not doctors. Since illegal abortions were also dangerous and very expensive, founding members of the collective believed that they could provide safer, cheaper abortions. During the years which Jane operated, the collective performed more than 12,000 abortions, for about $25.00 per procedure — on loan, if the woman was unable to pay at the time.

In 1972, the collective was raided, and the members who performed abortions jailed. The remaining members arranged to take a bus load of women to Philadelphia, for abortions to be performed by Harvey Karman and an assistant. The abortions were performed at an abortion clinic that was openly operating, in violation of Pennsylvania law. A public television crew from a station in New York filmed the procedures, at Karman's invitation, to document his new "super coil" abortion technique. A local woman's group, outraged that the women were being subjected to an untested and possibly unsafe abortion method, protested outside the clinic, letting the air out of the bus tires. When one of the women had to be hospitalized in Pennsylvania, local health officials contacted the Centers for Disease Control, which investigated and found that 9 of the 13 patients not lost to follow-up had suffered complications.
Regarding the testing of the supercoil abortion technique: Abortion was illegal at the time, so exactly how that method should have been tested – to get the most credible, legitimate, and reliable results – isn’t immediately obvious. There would be a number of different ways to do that, but its not as if the government or the Food and Drug Administration were ever going to give their seal of approval, for example. Did members of Jane take the position that women’s health collectives and the women’s community should be doing the testing, and not doctors or other members of the patriarchal medical establishment? Who exactly did they propose should be tested? Why exactly did they protest? What were they suggesting as an alternative?

Given the highly restrictive environment at the time for women who needed to terminate pregnancies, I think what Jane did was good. But today in the usa, when the right to an abortion is under imminent threat, I sometimes get the sense that certain political tendencies on the left are much too sanguine about this question. Yes, it is possible for women to (self-) administer abortions, and much of the time those work out fine. Yes, it is positive that grassroots community institutions educate themselves about healthcare – and develop new approaches -- and not leave it solely in the hands of “professionals”. However, the feminist movements themselves have consistently warned us about the potential dangers of these procedures, particularly how they could go wrong in the era prior to the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. In discussions with older women in my family (people born in the 1930’s and raised in the period prior to legalization), they certainly speak a great deal to how those could go wrong. A woman having complications from an abortion should be able to go to a doctor or an emergency room without worrying about being prosecuted by the state: formal, legal abortion rights still matter, and community healthcare initiatives – no matter how good they are -- cannot supplant or override that.