The Janes Is a Timely, Tight-Knit Oral History of Underground Abortions: Review
The post The Janes Is a Timely, Tight-Knit Oral History of Underground Abortions: Review appeared first on Consequence.
The Pitch: On May 3, 2022, a draft opinion from the Supreme Court leaked to Politico detailed the Court’s majority decision to reverse Roe v. Wade. The Roe v. Wade decision, which was declared in 1973, guaranteed the constitutional right for a pregnant woman or person to receive an abortion if they choose.
In the years that followed, the ruling had allowed more Americans to have greater access to birth control and other forms of pregnancy-prevention measures without the risk of them losing their lives in the process. Given how integral Roe v. Wade has been to people across the country, the fact that it could be struck down is terrifying, to say the least.
This landscape makes the release of The Janes, HBO’s latest documentary directed by Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes, so much more critical. Between 1968 and 1973, the group known as the Jane Collective provided over 11,000 underground abortion procedures to women throughout Chicago, rising to infamy when the Chicago Police Department raided the apartment they used as a makeshift clinic in 1972.
The entire story of the 20th-century renegade group is recounted in this documentary, which premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival, through extensive interviews with those involved.
To Live Outside The Law, You Must Be Honest: The Janes is a very fluid work, with each talking head moment and montage tightly woven together to create a chronological narrative, rather than jumping back and forth between the history of the collective and the 1972 raid that made it infamous.
While it could have been intriguing to start the documentary at the raid, it likely would have underscored the ultimate importance of the collective before the viewer got a chance to learn about them. In the case of The Janes, telling the entire story as it happens and refusing to bounce around (as other similar documentaries do) emphasizes just how critical the Jane Collective truly was.
The Janes (HBO)
Things begin with one of the members of Jane recounting her terrifying experience with abortion before the group’s formation — she had undergone a procedure via the Chicago mob that left her bloody and hurt afterward, before she was then kicked out of the hotel room where it happened. Beginning here establishes a desperate need for something like the Jane Collective, a service that provided safe abortions to those who need them. Although harrowing, the story’s inclusion sets the stage for Jane’s history to be extensively discussed.
Another artistic turn that the documentary takes is the decision to emphasize the cards that the members wrote on. As described by the members, these cards contained information about the women that were calling to speak to Jane, including their age, how long they thought they had been pregnant, and any relevant information that could be of use. These notes ranged from tidbits about their status as a mistress to their job being connected to the Chicago Police Department.
The physical cards, as well as some of the equipment used during the abortions, are seen throughout the film, making the events recounted much more real to the viewer. It brings home the fact that women really had to go to these lengths to get an abortion, the feeling of desperation they do not deserve to undergo ever again.
Why Can’t We Do Something More For Them? The key to the documentary is how it connects the Jane Collective to other movements happening throughout both Chicago and American society as a whole at that time. The Civil Rights Movement and the Anti-War Movement are shown to be integral stepping stones to the creation of the Jane Collective – people coming together for a common cause, eventually expanding their horizons and splintering off to advocate for other causes.
This detail is one lost in many recountings of the Jane story for unknown reasons, so seeing it highlighted in this documentary was enlightening. The emphasis on the outreach origins of the Jane Collective also serves as a potent reminder of the power of community organization, as does the rest of the documentary.
The Janes (HBO)
One aspect of the documentary that could have been used in a compelling manner but ultimately wasn’t was the sociopolitical aspects of the Jane Collective. The Janes, a majority white organization, primarily served low-income women and women of color. While the class issue is discussed in a lengthy segment comparing it to the Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion’s more upper-class activism, the racial dynamics could have had a more significant, more introspective part.
One member in the documentary admitted to being somewhat “ignorant” about the racial dynamics of their work and said that she would’ve done things differently had she known what she does now. However, she is the only member to provide such introspection, which could be considered troubling in a time where it is more important than ever to include all women, regardless of race, in activist spaces.
The Verdict: The Janes was not the only movie about the Jane Collective that premiered at this past Sundance Film Festival – Call Jane, a dramatized version of the story headlined by Elizabeth Banks, also premiered at the festival and is expected to be released later this year.
However, given how extensively The Janes covers the history of the collective told through the perspective of its members, it seems fruitless to dramatize the story to focus on any one character. Instead, it is the story of a group of women and, more abstractly, the idea that everyone should be able to receive a safe abortion without the fear of death or arrest.
While some aspects of that history should have been examined more introspectively, the documentary should be considered the definitive recounting of one of the most influential activist groups in American history.
Where to Watch: The Janes will premiere on HBO on June 8, streaming on HBO Max immediately after.
Trailer:
The Janes Is a Timely, Tight-Knit Oral History of Underground Abortions: Review
Erin Brady
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