“The Janes” (2022) is an HBO documentary that premiered on June 8, 2022 about a group of young women, the Jane Collective, aka Abortion Counseling Service of Women’s Liberation (the formal name is never mentioned in the film), who were active in the anti-war and civil rights movement, but were frustrated that in their academic circles, there was a lot of talk, not enough practical action and male-dominated. Based on their own experiences, they decided to become criminals, break state law before SCOTUS delivered the Roe v Wade verdict, run afoul of the mafia who dominated the underground medical provider service and save women’s lives by creating an underground, safe abortion service.
“The Janes” is a valuable documentary especially since most Americans are anticipating SCOTUS to reverse Roe v Wade this summer. Heather Booth, a founder, explained that people must stand up against “illegitimate authority and sometimes there are unjust laws that need to be challenged.” It is essential for people to study documentaries such as this one to learn the logistics of how people survived, learn from their mistakes, and figure out the equivalent practices that would work today. For example, a lot of their communication was rooted in postings on bulletin boards, land line phones and underground newspapers, but we have the internet now; however, law enforcement can monitor the internet so the film may offer some ideas to people who cannot imagine pre-digital communication.
If “The Janes” has a critical flaw, it is stumbling at streamlining the story by classifying and concentrating interviews according to subject matter. The documentary often felt as if it was backtracking when an interview revisited a subject that was the focal point of an earlier section. It makes the film feel longer than it is.
“The Janes” sets the stage of how women got abortions before it became illegal if they could not afford to travel to a country or a state where the procedure was legal. These film features interviews with the Jane members and explains the precipitating event that motivated each of them to get involved-helping a friend or an acquaintance in distress. They also interview doctors and nurses who practiced medicine at that time, and I guess that in addition to dealing with a pandemic, hospitals need to create septic abortion wards again. Towards the middle, a few Jane members tell their story, including some deceased members in footage from Dorothy Fadiman film, “From Danger to Dignity: The Fight for Safe Abortion” (1995), which I thought should have shifted to the film’s first act.
“The Janes” orients viewers to how Chicago worked at that time. Introducing the mob in the opening scene set the tone as the opposing force on the criminal spectrum to the Jane members. The stories of sexual assault while seeking help should have appeared soon thereafter. It would have been stronger to subsequently introduce the city’s power brokers earlier to set up a David and Goliath storyline, but viewers will have to wait until later in the film to understand the sanctioned forces that stood against the Janes: the Catholic Church, their customers’ nosey family members and the Chicago police force, which was predominantly Catholic so a de facto lack of separation of church and state. I wanted the film to elaborate more about its inference that authorities permitted them to exist.
“The Janes” scatters the members’ relationships with abortion providers. The only reliable doctor was TRM Howard, a black man who was a member of the 1960s civil rights movement and was vocal against Emmett Till’s lynching. The film waits until later to focus on how the Jane members approached other doctors, who either referred patients to them or were openly hostile. Their main provider was “Dr. Kaplan,” and I will not ruin your introduction to him, which is the main source of humor. The film scatters their profile of this gentle giant who ends up introducing the women to the concept that they could perform the abortions themselves and taught them. It may have been wiser to concentrate the doctors’ stories until after the Janes had established their mission. The unexpected revelation is that an illegal, underground, makeshift abortion was the best medical experience many women had—safe, informative, and comforting surroundings. It is terrifying that even now, gynecological services are still specialized, inaccessible and a mystery instead of widely available, easily conducted, and widespread information.
“The Janes” does many things well. Waiting to introduce the state court until the end, after the cops arrested them on May 3, 1972, the film’s highlight, made sense because it leads to the natural denouement, SCOTUS saving the day. The film sets the stage brilliantly by contrasting established lawyers with Jo-anne Wolfson, the one who represented the Jane members. The film offers a different story about her involvement than represented in earlier accounts.
During the legal system section, “The Janes” continues to explore its theme of misogyny permeating every facet of life, which included male-dominated legal industry, unsurprising for an antiquated profession, with lawyers unable to see them as human beings. The film consistently introduced this theme early with the youth movement and men not permitting them to talk or act in any role other than as servants. Misogyny does not distinguish between right and left.
“The Janes” addresses the intersectional elephant in the room-predominantly young, white, leftist women were providing services to poorer people and people of color, who are usually more conservative or centrists. There was one black member, Marie Leaner. They consider their missteps but are also transparent about how they were prepared to leverage their privilege if law enforcement came after them—young mothers who were not flight risks because they were taking care of families at home. This strategy worked. The filmmakers attempted to depict how the women who used their services perceived the whole process, but it is probably from lack of availability or willingness to be interviewed that it is so short. Issues of class were also revealed unconsciously by the interviewees when they discussed their brief detainment behind bars. The film omitted the Jane members’ perception that the cops treated them better than the women who needed their services.
“The Janes” also distinguishes how this organization differed from more mainstream parts of the women’s movement. The women’s movement was dominated with abortion legalization and changing hearts and minds, i.e., staying within the bounds of the law. The Jane members were willing to endure the potential negative characterization if their civil disobedience was discovered. It is a radical act to embrace becoming a criminal to save lives and not something to be taken for granted.
“The Janes” also focused on the mental toll that it took on their members, especially Jody Parsons, who died in 2010 so was unavailable. I think that her husband, Wayne Parsons, whose name is not featured in the interview, appears all too briefly to discuss how they offered their home to the cause and how their children reacted. I wish that the filmmakers had been interviewed, but it may have been out of their control
“The Janes” also features some terrific archival street footage. It is a time capsule that captures an era, which unfortunately seems to be returning.
