PANDEMIC DIARY
THE JANES
JULY 14, 2022
The Janes were a heroic collective of young women activists running a clandestine operation providing abortions to 11,000 women of Chicago between 1969-1973, prior to the Supreme Court decision that granted women the right to abortion memorialized in Roe vs. Wade.
“Social progress can be measured by the social position of the female sex.”
Karl Marx
Last night Adele and I saw the movie, “The Janes” on Martha’s Vineyard - a documentary of such profound significance, so important and timely with the authentic voices of the women who began and joined The Janes to perform “illegal” acts of affirmative protest. These women, now in their late sixties and seventies reminded me of my early activism and participation in protest and marches. I am remembering how useful I felt during those times. Whatever cynicism I might have had over the political process, however much I disdained our representatives, while ‘on the march’ I knew that these social militant compatriots and these pro-active movements meant something and were influential in educating, shifting attitudes, and changing policy.
The Janes focused on abortion as an issue but knew that abortion, as a political tool, was integrally related (there is now a word for this understanding - ‘intersectionality’) to race, gender identity and other social issues foisted upon political landscapes by white male leaders. All opposition to efforts to enhance the lives of the disenfranchised, to prevent abortion, to denigrate any class of individuals, to limit access to resources are all related acts. Any action, statement, or law which opposes, impedes or prevents one of these issues impacts all the others.
