Eileen Smith became pregnant in 1971. He was 21 years old. He lived in a studio, without money and with a bad partner. At some point in her life, she knew she would want children, but now was not the time. All she wanted then was to have an abortion. But in Chicago, where he lived, abortions were illegal. The solution was provided through an alternative newspaper of the time, which contained an announcement that read: “Pregnant. Don’t you want to be? Call Jane. So Eileen first came into contact with her. Team “Jane”a community of women that changed her life, a community that between 1969 and 1973 – when Roe v. Wade made abortion a constitutional right in 1973 – he illegally aborted approximately 11,000 women in Chicago.

In June, American broadcaster HBO exclusively released Janes, a documentary directed by Oscar nominee Tia Lessin and Emmy nominee Emma Pildes, which chronicles the actions of the women in the group. The documentary will be shown for the first time in Greece on Saturday as part of the WOW Festival, which will take place at the Cultural Center of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation from 1 to 3 April. After the screening of the film, two Janes, ch. Eileen Smith And Diane Stevensperform in front of a live audience. A few days before the start of the festival “K” met them in Athens.

They were all “Jane”.

When Diane Stevens moved to Chicago in 1969, she was 19 years old. She had had an abortion a few months before. In California, where she lived at the time, therapeutic abortion was legal under strict conditions, which first had to be approved by a doctor and two psychiatrists, who then presented the applicant’s case to the board, which gave final approval. When Diana moved to Chicago, she wanted to do something useful, to help people in some way. “I thought I knew what it was like to need an abortion,” she tells K Today. When he met the women of the collective, he found what he was looking for.

It all started when a politically active woman began to help others by introducing them to a network of specialists who performed illegal abortions. They called her on a dedicated phone line and asked for “Jane,” the nickname she had taken, and then she counseled them, explained the procedure, and if they still wanted her, connected them to the abortionist. The demand for Jane’s services grew rapidly, and other women began to help her. They were organised. They all answered the call as “Jane”. They released brochures that explained everything – what it is, why abortions cost money, what the procedure is, what women should beware of before having an abortion, and more – one of which, printed in the early 1970s, is now half a century later, in the hands of “K”. “Abortion, a woman’s decision, a woman’s right,” they wrote, explaining that their goal is the liberation of women in society. “An important way to achieve this goal is to help women who want to have an abortion do it as safely and cheaply as possible under the current circumstances,” they stressed.

blindfolded

The Jane Collective secretly aborted approximately 11,000 women in Chicago between 1969 and 1973.

After Eileen called “Jane” in 1971, they explained the process to her. During the abortion, she was blindfolded. He will have to go to the infamous part of the city. “It all sounded very scary” says “K”, “but the woman on the phone was very nice — she said it was $500, I told her I didn’t have any, how much can I save now, she asked. I told her 100, she said okay, I can give the rest when I have it.” She went where she was told, entered a room full of people. “I was very scared, but then a woman came who was going to take me to the operation, and she was six months pregnant,” says Ms. Smith. “I thought, wow, because I also once wanted a child, just not then, not like this.” Despite the fact that she was blindfolded, during the operation she felt safe, everyone took care of her, looked after her. A few days later, she received a call to see if she was all right. He began to think he wanted to help. She started babysitting when a counselor needed her. Then, while she was away, he answered the calls. He soon realized that he could help the women who called, he had the same experience. “In the past, I was in the anti-war movement, in the human rights movement, I generally wanted to do something, to help – it was something tangible, real, we helped women put their lives in order, as they helped me,” she emphasizes.

For a while, abortions were performed by a man whom they considered a doctor, until it turned out that this was not so. Everyone was in shock, some left the team. They soon realized that although he was not a doctor, the operations went well. And that’s how they learned to do this operation themselves. “He taught one of the women how to do it, and then she taught the others, and that’s how some of us learned how to have abortions,” explains Ms. Stevens “K.” He adds that the operation was only part of their job. The other was support – before, after, during – and training. “Women didn’t have enough medical information,” she says, “we gave them books about their bodies, about contraception, about venereal diseases, about the politics that led to the situation we found ourselves in.”

Arrest

Both emphasize that it was a terrible period of their lives. They did something secret and illegal that nearly cost them their freedom. Diane Stevens, along with six other women in the group, was arrested in 1972 by Homicide after a relative of a girl who had been helped by the Janes to have an abortion filed a complaint. But then came Roe v. Wade and their case had ceased to have any basis. The risk has always been explained to all women. “But they were so desperate,” says Ms. Stevens, “and we were better than the other alternatives – abortion doctors who didn’t tell them or did it themselves.” And then came 1973.

“We had a lot of discussions and we decided that if we continued this, we would interfere with the work of doctors, so we decided to stop,” says Ms Smith. Both she and Mrs. Stevens went on to study nursing, and “Janes” was a part of their lives that, for example, their parents never knew about. But then came the change to Roe v. Wade in June 2022, and the debate about abortion rights re-ignited in the US. Today, each state decides for itself whether abortion is allowed or not.

“misogyny”

“It’s terrible and infuriating,” Eileen says. “The country is not on the right track,” emphasizes Diane, “I never expected that everything would go like this, there is so much misogyny now.” She’s still busy – now she and her daughter are part of an organization that escorts women to abortion clinics, supporting them there as many anti-abortion protesters take to the streets and insult them. Eileen says the film gave them the opportunity to talk about abortion again to reduce stigma. The Janes gave them a lifelong friendship – Eileen and Diane remain close – and meaning. “Before Janes, I didn’t want to be a nurse,” Eileen says. “It made me feel capable,” she says to “K”, “that I can do something. That I can make a difference.”