Underground Abortion: The Jane Collective

Hello! My name is Sarah Bryant, and you are listening to “Underground Abortion: The Jane Collective.” 

At only 19 years old, Heather Booth started what grew into the Jane Collective. Living in Chicago, Illinois, where abortion was illegal at the time, Heather was set out to find a doctor who would perform an illegal abortion of her friend who asked for her help. She reached out to the Medical Committee for Human Rights and was pointed to Dr. T.R.M. Howard, a civil rights leader and surgeon and he was able to perform the abortion successfully. Afterward, Heather began getting more and more desperate calls asking for her help in finding a surgeon. In an interview podcast for Ms. Magazine, Heather stated, “Word spread, and I realized I needed to set up a system.”¹ And that is exactly what she did. 

Today I will be highlighting the story the brave women and individuals who ran the Jane Collective, which was an illegal abortion organization in Chicago during the late 1960s and early 1970s. With the overturning of Roe v. Wade, it is important as ever to know the history of abortion in our country, because just as we fought for women and reproductive rights in the past, we will continue to do so now and for future generations. 

Heather and a couple of other women began an organization performing illegal abortions for women and individuals in need. Since they were committing a crime, they wanted to protect their identities as much as possible, so they operated under the name “Jane”. They advertised one of their private phone numbers designating it as the organization’s service line with flyers and in newspaper ads stating, “Pregnant? Need help? Call Jane.”²  

They began getting call after call from women who needed abortions. The Janes eventually learned how to perform the procedures themselves, making them able to take on a much greater number of clients and at a smaller expense. The Jane Collective’s method of abortion was the menstrual extraction, or procedural abortion. For some information on the details of this procedure, I consulted a zine from the Smith College Special Collections published in 1992 called “Do It Yourself Abortion”. It covered an overview history of the Janes and other illegal abortions, and it provides a guide on how to conduct a menstrual extraction. It showed that the main instrument needed for the procedure is the “Del-Em” equipment which is the syringe suction devise that vacuum extracts the fetus from the uterus. ³

Before the procedure, the Janes made it a priority to explain thoroughly and clearly the steps and process of the abortion so that patients knew exactly what they would experience and what to expect. This was extremely different from most other medical experiences women had at the time where women were given very little information and autonomy over their bodies. Gynecologists were even described as being condescending to patients.⁴ In an interview for the HBO documentary, The Janes, Jane member, Eileen, expressed, “it seemed so odd to me that it was illegal, it was the best medical experience I ever had”⁵

Not only were the Janes providing safe abortions and providing clients with support, but they were also primarily helping poor and working-class women. At this time, wealthy women who sought abortions could afford to fly to New York or other locations where abortion was legal, however not everyone had the money, time, or resources to travel for this procedure. The Janes operated under a “pay what you can” method where clients were encouraged to pay as much as they could because their money could pay for the next abortion for a woman who maybe couldn’t afford it at all. This allowed the Janes to provide affordable and safe abortions to the women in their community.

To stay under the radar and protect their operation, the Janes would move to different homes for meetings and for procedures, never staying in one location for too long. On the day of an abortion, patients would be brought to a first location which served as a waiting room until they were driven to a secondary location for the procedure to take place. 

Despite their pretty public advertising, the Jane Collective was left alone by law enforcement. Until one day, the Chicago police were given a tip by an angry relative that their family member was going to receive an abortion. The police followed a Jane driver as they drove the client from the waiting location to the procedure location and then they followed them inside. Seven Janes were discovered and arrested for abortion and conspiracy to commit abortion which put them at risk of facing up to 110 years in prison⁶. With the help of their lawyer, Jo-Anne Wolfson, who continued to push delays in the case, the charges were all dropped with the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 which protected the right to abortion nationwide and with this came the end of the Jane Collective. 

In its operating years, between 1965 and 1973, the Jane Collective performed 11,000 safe abortions.⁷ In an interview in The Janes documentary, Jane member, Judy, expressed, “we felt that we were doing the right thing. Not only was there a need but there was a philosophical obligation on our part, on somebody’s part to disrespect a law that disrespected women.”⁸

Today, over 50 years later, Roe v. Wade has been overturned. Abortion bans and anti-abortion legislation are on the rise, yet individuals like the Janes are still fighting to provide safe abortions. In fact, since the overturning, the number of abortions provided have increased largely thanks to medication abortions. Medication abortion are FDA approved medications mifepristone, which interrupts the hormone that sustain a pregnancy, and misoprostol which causes contractions to expel the contents of the uterus⁹. These medications are easily shipped through mail and can be assessed through telemedicine abortion providers from shield states. 

If you or someone you know is seeking out information on abortion pill access, I highly recommend checking out Plan C at plancpills.org. They are an amazing organization that offers information on what a medical abortion is, how to get a medical abortion, and links resources for legal and financial support.

During this ongoing fight for reproductive rights, the Jane Collective’s legacy can remind us to never stop fighting for the right to choose. 

Thank you for listening to Underground Abortion: The Jane Collective, I hope you have a nice day and remember to never lose hope!

Baker, Carrie. “Abortion: Pre-Roe and Post-Roe”. PowerPoint at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, September 26, 2024. 

“Do It Yourself Abortion” 1992. Sophia Smith Collection Zines Collection, SSC-MS-00434, Smith College Special Collections, Northampton, Massachusetts.

Goodwin, Michele. 2022. “69. Fifteen Minutes of Feminism: Heather Booth and the Jane Collective (in Memory of Dorothy Pitman Hughes).” Ms. Magazine. December 13, 2022. https://msmagazine.com/podcast/69-fifteen-minutes-of-feminism-heather-booth-and-the-jane-collective/.

Lessin, Tia, and Emma Pildes, dirs. 2022. The Janes. HBO Max.

Martha Scott collection of instruments used by Jane: The Abortion Counseling Service. Boxes 1-3, Sophia Smith Collection of Women’s History, SSC-MS-00820, Smith College Special Collections, Northampton, Massachusetts.

Spillar, Kathy. 2022. “What Did Abortion Look like before Roe v. Wade?” Ms. Magazine. December 19, 2022. https://msmagazine.com/2022/12/19/jane-collective-heather-booth-history-abortion/.