Jane, A movement, Not just a Name
We do know that beds for botched abortions in many major hospitals were usually full and the horror stories of melted vaginas, massive infection, destroyed fertility were all too common.
Many abortionists operated on their own. Drs. Boyd and Morgentaler started out as individuals then joined up with underground operations such as the Clergy Consultation Services (CCS).
“Jane” was different. It was mainly local to the Chicago area and it did not begin with a doctor. The Jane Collective in Chicago performed 11,000-plus underground abortions between 1968 and 1973. No one died, thus not adding to the 60,000 women who were estimated to have died during the same period from bad abortions.
No one knows the exact number of deaths from unsafe abortions or even how many women had abortions and lived. We do have figures from groups like Jane and the Clergy Consultation Service (CCS) which do not include those who went to back-alley butchers or those who tried to abort themselves and lived.
The only thing that is certain, too many women died.
Women didn’t admit they had an abortion and death records might or might not include abortion as a cause of death, instead using terms like hemorrhage, infection or spontaneous miscarriage.
We do know that beds for botched abortions in many major hospitals were usually full and the horror stories of melted vaginas, massive infection, destroyed fertility were all too common. It would be a next to impossible task to examine every death certificate in every city and town in all 50 states for a year. Standards would have to be set on what wording would be most likely to mask the real cause of death by abortion and then research families if they were still living. Even they might or might not know.
Jane’s Beginnings
The Jane Collective began as a referral service for students seeking abortions at the University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois.
As in most movements it started with a single person then involved others. For Jane it was Heather Booth, born 15 December 1945, in Brookhaven Mississippi, a 7.3-square-mile town. Current population is about 12,000 people.
Heather’s father was stationed in the Army as a cardiac specialist: Dr. Jerome Sanford Tobias (1916-2012). Her mother was a homemaker/special education teacher: Hazel Victoria Weisbard Tobias (1918-2002). The couple also had two sons.
After her father’s service duty was completed, the family moved to Brooklyn, New York and later to Long Island. Her family, observant Liberal Jews, stressed the importance of decency and respect in dealings with others.
Her mother introduced her to Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique.
Booth’s activism began in high school when she worked against the death penalty and Woolworth’s segregation policies. Before enrolling at the University of Chicago, she spent a summer in Israel. The university appealed to her because they did not have sororities and were not sports mad. She earned two degrees:
B.A. Social Sciences,
1967
M.A. Educational Psychology, 1970
At the university she noticed a bias toward men and formed a consciousness-raising group. She observed that women often blamed themselves and considered their problems personal, not a reflection of society’s limitations.
She met her husband at a sit-in protest about the Vietnam War and the draft. After they married in 1965, the couple would have two sons, born in 1968 and 1970.
Before her marriage, Booth had become involved with the abortion issue more by accident. She helped a friend find an abortionist. Other students asked her for help and she continued referring them to the doctor. Advertisements to “Call Jane” were placed in underground and student papers.
By 1967 several women joined Booth in the service which quickly evolved into The Jane Collective, also called the Abortion Counseling Service. It offered a haven and a friendly face. A secretary was needed to handle phone volume. Jane was a member of a working group, the Chicago Women’s Liberation Union, which fought the abortion restrictions in Illinois.
When Jane discovered that the abortionist whom they were working with, Mike, wasn’t a doctor, they learned to do abortions themselves. He taught the women dilation and curettage and the super coil methods. Mike remained available, according to several sources, for after-abortion care if needed.
Desperate women, who learned about Jane from word of mouth, would call the union and would be given a phone number to call and ask for Jane. After they left a message they would be contacted by a Jane volunteer who would record the woman’s medical history. A meeting with an abortion counselor would follow for more information if the woman decided to continue. Only then would they be given an address.
When the woman arrived for the abortion, she was assigned a counselor who:
Briefed her on the procedure
Led her through the process
Told how to prepare for it
Explained what to expect afterward
Jane used two apartments. One was called The Front, where they established the emotionally environment. Support guests were welcomed and could watch TV or nibble cookies as they waited for their friend or relative. For women who could not arrange childcare there were people to mind the kids.
The woman who wanted the abortion was then taken to a second apartment where they had their temperature taken and were given antibiotics to prevent infections. Before the procedure they were given a local anesthetic. One of the volunteers would hold the woman’s hand if she wanted it.
Abortions cost about $100 ($551 in 2018 dollars) per procedure. There were funds for women who could not afford abortions through the Chicago Abortion Fund or loans. Women were asked to pay what they could. It was not a money-making business, but apartment rents, antibiotics and equipment were not free.
After the abortion, the woman was given information about what to do if problems arose.
It was strikingly different from many of the horror stories like the woman who said her abortionist spread newspapers on the table or the woman who developed an infection after a piece of bark was shoved up her vagina. Unfortunately, the horror stories were not rare.
None of the Jane patients died.
When Jane was raided in 1973, seven women were arrested and became known as the Jane Seven. At first the police were confused because there was no male doctor on the premises. The case never went to trial because Roe v. Wade changed everything. The Jane Collective disbanded. It was no longer needed.
Since Jane, Booth has been active as a social organizer. She has been described as “the most influential person you never heard of.” Booth has been at the center of almost every social movement of the past 50 years and is Chair of Midwest Academy. Instructors teach the importance of establishing organizations to set specific goals for using pressure-group tactics in a formally structured campaign. It started in 1973 and is still operating.
She has been active in many civil rights causes, many of which might reduce the need for abortion including:
Abortion rights
Civil rights
Child care
Climate change
Equal justice
Fair pay
Immigration rights
Voter rights
Worker rights
Honors and Awards
Booth’s work has been recognized by many groups:
Thomas-Debs Award, May 1987
Washington, D.C. office of AVODAH (Jewish Service Corps) held a “Partner in Justice Event” in her honor, June 2009
National Organization for Women (NOW) Victoria J. Mastrobuono Women’s Health Award on behalf of the Jane Collective, July 2013
the Chicago Abortion Fund honored Booth and the Jane Collective at its 25th anniversary celebration, September 2015
United Vision for Idaho gave a reception honoring Booth in conjunction with a showing of Heather Booth: Changing the World, October 2016
She has been called “one of the nation’s most influential organizers for progressive causes” in a 2017 profile by Pulitzer-winning journalist David Wood.
Women who had abortions at Jane found the procedure warm and supportive, far different from the many horror stories of aborting on dirty newspapers or having bark and other strange things shoved up the vagina.
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