DORRIE BARRON: I was petrified. UCF Office of Instructional Resources Overriding nearly five decades of legal precedent, the Supreme Courthas overturnedRoe v. Wade, the landmark1973 ruling that legalized abortion in the U.S. Yet its not goodbye. Will they matter? New HBO documentary 'The Janes' examines pre-Roe v. Wade underground abortion network The group helped an estimated 11,000 women in Chicago get access to safe, affordable abortions in the late. Madeline McComish (top row, center), a retired chemist, is past president of Massachusetts Citizens for Life. After realizing the consequences of anti-abortion law around the world, she took it upon herself to provide abortions on ships in the ocean. Used by permission, Cover From Newsweek, June 6,1977, IBT MEDIA The US Supreme Court's 7-2 decision established rules based on a pregnancy trimester framework, banning legislative interference in the first trimester of pregnancy (0-12 weeks), allowing states to regulate abortion during the second trimester (weeks 13-28) "in ways that are reasonably related to maternal health," and allowing a state to KAREN GRAVES But The Janes is so much more than a mere history lesson. Have you watched the film on your local PBS station? While serving as an usher at his Wichita, Kansas, church, Dr. Tiller was killed by an anti-abortion extremist. Abortion: Stories Women Tell is streaming on HBO Max. The development of medication abortion has vastly changed the landscape. daniel@whatisessential.org Jennifer 8. BOB GRAHAM The experience would forever change how they speak to and about each other. The US must be castigated on the world stage for its treatment of women, girls and others who can become pregnant the scale and intensity of human rights violations that the US is inflicting on its population are near unfathomable at this point, said Christine Ryan, legal director of the Global Justice Center, in a phone interview. There has been an absolute calamity in terms of public health, human rights, and the response has been middling to poor, Ryan said. Editor's note: This review was originally published at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. So, Mike trained the Janes to perform abortions themselves. The documentary and supporting materials serve as a perfect springboard to have healthier, deeper, more connective conversations about abortion in your context. Marcie Bianco is a writer and editor based in California. In 1963, 280 deaths were recorded in the U.S. from induced abortions, and in 1965, they dropped to 235, according to Pew Research, which indicated that the numbers fell to single digits or zero every year after Roe v. Wade was decided. The limitations included performing abortions with no formal medical training. Educational DVDs of The Abortion Divideare available from ShopPBS for Teachers. The broadcast version also updates viewers on same-sex marriage in Florida. Explore FRONTLINEs collected and ongoing reporting on Russia's war on Ukraine. Drawing on a landmark FRONTLINE film from the 1980s, the documentary takes a look at both sides of the abortion divide in a community still embroiled in the conflict. Filmmakers Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes wish their new HBO documentary, The Janes about a group of Chicago women who covertly helped thousands safely obtain abortions in the late . Lesanne Brunswick. Ultimately, just three were included. The institutions that serve us are not broken they are working according to their design. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. The Fight For Women's Bodies Contains some upsetting scenes. We came together to do something at a time when it was most needed, collective member Laura Kaplan said at the documentarys conclusion. YOU'VE REACHED YOUR MONTHLY ARTICLE LIMIT. At the center of two separate symbolic victories for pro-choice and pro-life advocates, McCorvey makes a deathbed confession that she was paid by anti-abortion groups like Operation Rescue to speak out against abortion later in life. University of Central Florida College of Arts & Humanities. Michael Hugo, the chair of the Framingham Democratic Committee said during a Feb. 7, Framingham, Massachusetts, city council meeting that special needs children who aren't aborted are a financial . Seven of the women were arrested in a police raid with charges of abortion and conspiracy to commit abortion in 1972, just before the historic Supreme Court decision. The following people and organizations have made the public television broadcast of our film possible through their generous contributions. Documentary shows how women ran underground abortion network before Roe v. Wade ruling, according to a 2019 BuzzFeed essay written by Allan Weiland. Women dying in septic abortion wards from self-induced efforts (one OB-GYN interviewed recalls seeing a woman who used carbolic acid), and clandestine abortions gone wrong. FRONTLINE is a registered trademark of WGBH Educational Foundation. The documentary and supporting materials serve as a perfect springboard to have healthier, deeper, more connective conversations about abortion in your context. Powerful evidence of the unimaginable., Clara Germani, The Christian Science Monitor. Its pretty hard to tell stories and to be evocative about tax policy, Himes said. Casey allowed states to restrict access, so long as they did not place an undue burden on women seeking the procedure. There's reason for people on opposing sides of abortion to talk, even if they disagree Kate Isaacs, Excellent, important, timely, urgent and needs to be seen and discussed widely Peter Coleman, Founding Executive Director of the Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict and Complexity (AC4) at The Earth Institute at Columbia University and author of. The fight for contraception, abortion rights, and bodily autonomy has always been hard-fought and tense, but in the last few years, it's become a life or death battle for many. Try some deep breathing - very reassuring. Abortion restrictions compound economic, social, and geographic barriers to healthcare, including contraception, disproportionately impacting Black womens ability to access the care we need.. Orlando Film Festival 2014 A doctor hugs a patient at an abortion clinic in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, on 13 January 2023. . The abortion clinic is less than a mile from Texas, where abortion is illegal. THE ABORTION TALKS follows the crimes, trial, and murder of John Salviand the story of six women, all of them leaders in the pro-life and pro-choice movements, who sought to ensure that it would never happen again. DEL BARCO: In 1972, police raided the operation and arrested seven of the Janes, including Arcana, who told NPR she was a nursing mother at the time. Although some initially hesitated to appear on camera, all of them understood that these rights were slipping away and that these stories were relevant, said Tia Lessin, who co-directed the film with Emma Pildes. I was just laying there trying to, you know, get my breath, and I knew I was bleeding. They each were charged with eleven counts of abortion and conspiracy to commit abortion. Experts believe that the use of a law traditionally used against physical threats could change the landscape. Mandalit del Barco, NPR News. Florida Senator Charley Johns chaired the committee, and its aim was to root out communist and homosexual teachers and students from state universities. The broadcast version of the film is significantly different from the film festival version, in that it highlights USFs role in bringing media attention to the Johns Committee, ultimately causing the committees downfall. FRED FEJES But doing so gave them a real understanding of what they were capable of at a time when a lot of women were told they werent capable of much, Pildes said. He said he often gets asked how its possible to represent a population with such a wide range in income and wealth disparity. Footnote 1 The chair of the Republican National Committee, Mary Louise Smith, supported abortion rights, as did First Lady Betty Ford, who declared Roe v. Wade a "great, great decision." Likewise, Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, who had taken a leading role in the fight for abortion rights in New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s . Eventually, the Janes learned to perform the procedure themselves. Natasha Hellerich A doctor hugs a patient at an abortion clinic in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, on 13 January 2023. Washington D.C., Mar 1, 2023 / 16:45 pm (CNA). In the ward at the former Cook County Hospital in Chicago, now John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County, death was a common occurrence, according to a 2019 BuzzFeed essay written by Allan Weiland, who worked in the ward as a medical student and appears in The Janes.. Weve seen consistent lip service from the Biden-Harris administration, but not enough action, she said. Abortion restrictions, the signatories write, deny womens decisional and bodily autonomy in a way that rejects the agency, dignity and equality of people who can become pregnant.. But people would be banned from using the process to change abortion laws. The committee was tasked with producing a report with policy recommendations, but Himes wanted to go further than that. Emphasized again and again is the message that we cannot rely on antiquated laws propping up white-supremacist patriarchal institutions to support or care for us. It has repeatedly called on States parties to the CEDAW Convention to remove punitive measures for women who undergo abortion and to legalize abortion at least in cases of rape, incest, threats to the life or health of the pregnant woman and girls . April 23 and August 27, 2019 Drawing on a landmark FRONTLINE film from the 1980s, the documentary. It was updated to reflect the correct year. Lawmakers may have the power to legislate which actions are legal and which are not, but they cannot simply end abortions. IE 11 is not supported. Any exceptions allowing abortion in very narrow circumstances for example, where an abortion is necessary to save the life of the pregnant persons life, or when the pregnancy is the result of rape are practically unworkable, the signatories write. Republican. That said, Himes is committed to shaping policy that evens the playing field. These norms must be deployed against the state here at home as well. Interviews were conducted with members of the Florida public school system, survivors of the Johns Committee, a retired police officer who worked with the committee, and former Florida governor and retired U.S. They are joined by a broader coalition of groups and individual advocates for human rights and racial and economic justice. The 1960s, culturally, was rooted in the belief that we are the change we seek, and that radical societal change was possible. Two forthcoming films based on the collective Amazon Studios This Is Jane, starring Michelle Williams, and Roadside Attractions Call Jane, starring Elizabeth Banks, come out later this year in addition to the 2018 feature film Ask for Jane..