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DORIE BARRON:
I had no other options.

I wanted it over with,

and I didn't care
how it was done.

I was that desperate.

An acquaintance said,
"Here's a phone number,"

and it was the Mob.

They had to talk in code.

They said,
"Do you want a Cadillac,

a Chevrolet, or a Rolls-Royce?"

The Chevy was the cheapest,
500 dollars.

Um, a Cadillac was
something like 750,

and if you wanted
the Rolls-Royce,

and we're talking about
the '60s here,

it was a thousand dollars.

That's what the Mob charged
for an abortion.

I said, "Well, I think
I-- I want a Chevrolet,"

and they go, "Okay, fine, well",

you know, we'll see you
at this address

"with your money."

-(CRICKETS CHIRPING)
-(NEON BUZZING)

DORIE: It was not a familiar
part of town.

I went to the room
that I was assigned...

and I sat on the bed
and I waited.

The next thing you know,

there's four of them,
there are three men and a woman,

and then they brought
another young woman with them

who also needed,
uh, an abortion.

I was petrified.

They spoke all of three
sentences to me the entire time.

"Where's the money?"

"Lie back and do as I tell you."

"Get in the bathroom."
That was it.

I was just laying there trying
to, you know, get my breath,

and I knew I was bleeding,

and all of a sudden,
they were gone. They just left.

Two young women
out in the middle of nowhere

in a motel, bleeding.

If I had stayed in that room,
I'd be dead.

When we both were able to,
an hour or two later...

stand up without being dizzy,

and then we could
get out the door,

find a cab, she went her way,
I went mine.

And that was it.

♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪

(SIREN WAILING)

JUDITH ARCANA:
In the state of Illinois,

and most of the rest
of the nation,

abortion was illegal.

It was not medical practice.

It was simply a crime.

♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

We were very aware of the fact
that women were suffering

in a variety of ways

because of abortion
being against the law.

Women did awful things
out of fear and desperation.

We knew that some
would be injured,

some would die.

Many people around them,
including children

that they already had,
would suffer.

So, we thought,
"We can be of use.

You need an abortion,
we'll help you.

Call this number
and ask for Jane."

KATIE: Jane was
an outrageous undertaking

by a lot of smart women.

Traveling under the radar
of the Chicago Mafia

and Chicago Police Department.

That was a case where

men's underestimating
women's abilities

worked very well for us.

MARIE LEANER:
As a member of Jane,

I knew the risk I was taking.

I knew that it was possible
that I could go to jail

for what I was doing.

Um, but at the time, I was--
I could care less.

MARTHA SCOTT:
Until I was arrested,

I figured it wouldn't make
any difference.

You know, I'd be fine.

ELEANOR OLIVER:
If you start getting serious

and start worrying about
all these little details,

you won't get anything done!

You won't get anything done.

PEACHES: That was the beauty
of Chicago, I think.

It was a town
where people did stuff.

(CAR HORNS HONKING)

(TRAIN TRACKS RUMBLING)

A lot of things
were going on in Chicago

that made it, uh,
politics seem very real,

or, you know,

what was happening
in the country very immediate.

I wouldn't say I went to Chicago

with a particular interest
in abortion.

PROTESTER:
Every woman should have a sign.

Please pick them up.

SHEILA:
Like other women in Jane,

we came to the service
from other things,

the anti-war movement,
the civil rights movement.

POLICE OFFICER:
Don't block the sidewalk!

It was around us, you know?

You couldn't not pay attention
to what was going on.

(INDISTINCT SHOUTING, CHANTING)

You smell like pigs,
that's why we don't want you!

Pigs!

MARIE: At the open housing
demonstrations

on the southwest side
of Chicago,

racists were lining the streets
ready to throw bottles.

Your mother's a whore!

Your mother's a whore!

MARIE: I said,
"Here's an opportunity

for me to take a stand
in defining who am I

as a person,
what do I stand for?"

(INDISTINCT JEERING AT MARCHERS)

I still have a scar
on my arm

from where one of the slivers
of bottles hit me.

OFFICER: Just keep moving!
Just keep moving!

I can assure you that the hatred
and the hostility here

are really deeper
than what I've seen

in Alabama and Mississippi.

REV. PATRICIA NOVICK-RABY:
People were throwing
bags of shit at us,

grabbing women's earrings and
pulling them out of their ears.

Throwing firecrackers
from trees.

-(EXPLOSION BOOMS)
-PROTESTER: Run, run, run! Run!

I was afraid all the time.

(INDISTINCT SHOUTS)

But, you know,
I was a warrior for justice.

♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

HEATHER BOOTH: I had started
at the University of Chicago,

and I joined
the Freedom Summer Project.

I went to Mississippi to support
the voter registration effort.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

(PROTESTER SHOUTING)

HEATHER:
And during that summer,

I learned that sometimes
you have to stand up

to illegitimate authority.

And sometimes
there are unjust laws

that need to be challenged.

(BELL TOLLING)

HEATHER:
I came back to campus,

and then a friend of mine

was raped at knifepoint
in her bed

in off-campus housing.

I went with her
to Student Health,

and she was given a lecture
on her promiscuity,

was told that

Student Health didn't cover
gynecological exams.

And I was outraged.

Women were at
a total disadvantage

when it came to
our reproductive rights

and our own medical rights
and our--

just our personal rights.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

JUDITH: Women didn't have
the power to make decisions.

You had to be married
to get a diaphragm.

When the pill came in,
you had to be married

to get a prescription for pills.

If you weren't married,
you were out of luck.

Contraceptives were not widely,
freely, openly available.

ABBY: When I went to college,

I was told, "Go to Woolworths,
get a five-dollar ring",

put it on your left,
fourth finger...

then tell the doctor

that your name is
Mrs. Somebody-or-Another

"and you needed birth control."

Just insane.

HEATHER:
I became more engaged

on women's issues,
but I don't remember

any real discussion
about abortion,

until a friend told me
that his sister was pregnant

and was nearly suicidal.

That she wasn't ready
to have a child

and was looking for a doctor
to perform an abortion,

and could I help out?

I started to ask around.

I went to the doctors

who were in the medical arm
of the civil rights movement,

and they directed me
to a Dr. T.R.M. Howard.

DR. T.R.M. HOWARD:
The Mississippi
White Citizens' Council

is exerting tremendous
economic pressure

upon the Negro people
of the state of Mississippi.

HEATHER: He had been
a civil rights activist

in Mississippi...

...the physical violence...

HEATHER:
...until he stood up against

the murder of Emmett Till.

And then his name appeared
on a Klan death list

and he came to Chicago.

He set up a clinic
on 63rd Street.

I contacted him by phone.

He was very responsive.

He said he would
take care of it. And....

he was good to his word.

Word spread,-
and someone else called.

I put that person in touch
with Dr. Howard,

and then word spread again.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

HEATHER: And so, it only
dawned on me over time

how big an issue this was.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

-(CRICKETS CHIRPING)
-(DOGS BARKING)

EILEEN: It was at the end
of school,

so there weren't many kids
in the dorm.

There was a girl down the hall.

We weren't friends,
she was a little older.

She knocked on the door
and said she was in trouble,

and could I help her?

So I went down to her room,
and there was blood everywhere.

"She said, "I had an abortion

and I'm bleeding
and I'm really scared.

"Can you call the doctor?"

You know, there was one phone
in the hallway.

So, I went into the hallway
and called the doctor.

He said,
"How much is she bleeding?"

I don't know.
I said, "Well, she's...

I'd say it's pretty bad."

He said, "Put her feet up,
go get ice,

and call me back in two hours."

So, I got on my bike,
I went and got ice,

brought it back,
cleaned up her room.

She said, "Don't tell anybody.
Don't tell my boyfriend."

And I realized,
"Oh, my God, how scary.

She's all by herself."

I saw her like
the next day and...

-(BICYCLE BELL RINGS)
-...she had stopped bleeding,

the ice did it,
the elevating the legs.

It worked.

So that was good.

-TIA LESSIN:
That must've been scary for you.
-It was re--

Well, plus I was... high.
(LAUGHS)

Which was true. You know, 'cause
this was the end of school.

We're sitting around smoking
some dope, and I'm like, "What?"

Well, that got me out of it
really quick.

All of a sudden
I'm riding my bike in the night

going, "Oh, my God,
I have to, like,

not be this way anymore."

So, it was-- It was scary,
and it was so...

(SIGHS)

It just stayed with me,
because it seemed so wrong

that this was going on.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

DR. ALLAN WEILAND:
I was a medical student

at Cook County Hospital.

What was seared into my--
into my brain is

what desperate people will do

when they think
they have no other choice.

Women would come in

with some type of
a complication,

often a horrendous injury...

as a result of
an illegal abortion.

Women would use objects
to try to disrupt the pregnancy,

which perforated the uterus,

perforated the bladder,
perforated the intestines.

There were chemical means.

I recall one woman
who tried carbolic acid.

She had horrific burns.

We would see
15 to 20 people a day.

They either went
to the operating room,

or they went up
to the Septic Abortion Ward.

And the Septic Abortion Ward
was full every day.

KATHLEEN KENNEDY: I just
remember walking into the unit

and observing
those patients there.

Nineteen years old,
young girls...

either self-induced
or somebody did it,

and why can't we save them,

or why can't we do something
more for them?

One girl, I remember
the doctor saying,

"There's nothing more
we can do for her."

Here's this
beautiful young girl,

and nobody there,
and she's dying.

She never woke up.
I still see her face.

ALLAN:
I called the morgue every week
that I was on that ward,

because somebody had died.

HEATHER: There were
increasing numbers of women

coming to me.
Mostly it was students.

Over time, it expanded
to other people in Chicago.

After a few years,
I lost contact with Dr. Howard.

He wasn't answering my calls.

I only learned later
that he had been arrested.

I started again on a search.

Did any of the doctors I knew
know anyone else to refer me to?

And finally, I got the name
of someone named Mike.

MIKE: When I first learned it,

I was helping this guy
from Detroit.

He started on--
He was a surgeon,

a real surgeon,
he used to operate every day.

He would come in
on the weekends.

For years, I watched him.

I stood behind him,
I watched him,

I handed him the tools.

And then he said,
"Come here. You do it."

He taught me the most important
thing is, be gentle.

And so, it wasn't a very
hard thing to learn.

And then after I learned it,
I didn't need him anymore.

♪ (SECRETIVE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

I thought it was
probably Mob-connected,

but that may have been
my own imagination.

Mike sent his associate.

We met at a Walgreens
that was downtown in Chicago.

I told her what all
the arrangements had been

with Dr. Howard,
and they agreed to the terms.

Even talking about
performing an abortion

was a conspiracy
to commit a felony.

I was worried about
being arrested.

I didn't want to be arrested.

We were aware of the Red Squad,

the division of
the Chicago police

that would monitor
social change,

civil rights
and movement activists.

-♪ (MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
-(TYPEWRITER CLACKING)

We were all being watched.

There were police who sat
in front of our building.

Most of the building
was filled with radicals.

You might say even
communist revolutionaries.

(CAR HORN HONKING)

REV. PATRICIA:
My husband, Al Raby,

was a leader in the Chicago
civil rights movement.

We each had our own police tail.

One day, I forgot my keys...

and so I had my tail
call his tail

so he would go home
and let me in the house.

(TYPEWRITER CLACKING)

MICHAEL:
The anti-war movement
was under heavy surveillance.

TIA: Do you think
your phones were tapped?

-At that point?
-Absolutely. They--
they should have been.

I was representing young men
who were subject to the draft

for the Vietnam War.

The way they accumulated bodies
for the war

was abysmal
and disgusting and illegal.

We are tired of this dirty war.

(EXPLOSION)

DRAFT PROTESTER:
We want to withdraw
our participation from it.

Every night, you could watch
the war on television.

(RADIO CHATTER)

JUDITH: It was a presence
in our lives.

(PROTESTERS SHOUTING)

MICHAEL: It was 1968,
and then hell broke out.

♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

♪ (MARCHING BAND MUSIC
PLAYING) ♪

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

I spent the whole convention
in the National Guard

in front of the Hilton.

Mayor Daley wanted some
tough coppers down there.

DIANE STEVENS:
When the convention
came to Chicago,

I knew I had to go see
what this was all about.

I was part of
the youth movement.

I thought the whole world
was gonna change.

I really did.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

HEATHER:
It was a beautiful sunny day.

We took a picnic
with some friends.

There were a lot of speeches
going on.

(INDISTINCT SPEECH
OVER MICROPHONE)

And we were sitting on a hill
above Grant Park.

And while we're sitting there...

-(WEAPON FIRING)
-(SCREAMING)

-HEATHER: ...the first
tear gas canister was lobbed in.
-(CROWD SCREAMING)

SINGER:
Kick out the jams, motherfucker!

HEATHER:
And then we see the police
starting to charge us.

♪ ("KICK OUT THE JAMS"
BY MC5 PLAYING) ♪

♪ I'm gonna ♪

♪ I'm gonna kick 'em out! ♪

-(CROWD MEMBER SCREAMS)
-♪ Yeah! ♪

(PROTESTERS JEERING AT POLICE)

♪ Well, I feel pretty good
And I guess that I could ♪

♪ Get crazy now, baby ♪

♪ 'Cause we all got in tune
And when the dressing room ♪

♪ Got hazy, now baby... ♪

DORIE: They saw the youngsters
as against God

and everything decent.
I was in shock.

The cops going in there
with just...

going crazy beating the kids.

♪ And let me
Kick out the jam... ♪

SGT. TED O'CONNOR:
At one point, somebody raised

the Viet Cong flag

in front of combat veterans
of three wars.

And the combat veterans
of three wars proceeded to beat

the living daylights
out of everybody.

-♪ (ROCK MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
-(INDISTINCT CLAMOR)

(PROTESTER SCREAMING)

♪ Can't get enough
Miss McKenzie... ♪

PEACHES: It reinforced
our negative feelings

about government,
certainly about Richard Daley,

the police, as well.

♪ Make you wanna keep-a-rockin'
Till morning comes... ♪

It was a great
radicalization for me.

♪ And let me kick out the jam ♪

(SIREN WAILING)

♪ Yes, kick out the jams ♪

♪ I done kicked 'em out! ♪

♪ (SONG CONCLUDES) ♪

It was a dark moment
for Chicago.

MICHAEL: I was helping
bail out people

who had been arrested.

We were called
"radical lawyers,"

attorneys who were my age

with a great desire
to impede the war progress.

We also, of course,
were very interested

in race relations
and civil rights,

and no interest whatsoever
in women's rights.

That was not a part of the deal.

SHEILA: I was interested
in the anti-war movement,

but it seemed to me

that mostly the guys
were running it

and they felt it was about them.

So, it wasn't going
to become my cause

except in a helper role.

LAURA KAPLAN: This is the way
the world was.

It was always the guys.

It was always, forever,
the guys.

-♪ (ROCK MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

My question!

LAURA:
With their macho stuff going on.

(OVERLAPPING CLAMOR)

LAURA: It seemed
very male-dominated.

There was a lot of testosterone
and a lot of lecturing.

The human people
and the Vietnamese people...

...we go forth as human beings
around the world.

MARIE: I respected
the Black Panther Party,

and to this day
I respect what they provided

for the Black community,
a sense of dignity and respect.

Fred Hampton and Bobby Rush
were friends of mine.

But I didn't necessarily agree
with the party's attitude

that women were to serve
the men in the party.

Which is why I never
joined the party,

'cause I couldn't abide
by those practices.

(PROTESTERS CHANTING)

HEATHER: At one meeting
on my campus, an SDS meeting,

Students for
a Democratic Society,

they were going to discuss
the so-called "woman question."

While I'm talking,
one of the guys says,

"Ah, shut up."

And I was so shocked.

So, I tapped the shoulder
of every woman in the group,

and I said,
"Let's leave this meeting."

♪ (UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

WOMAN: Welcome.

ABBY: The Chicago
Women's Liberation Union

blossomed up.

There's something wrong
when a woman can't get a job

without typing skills.

(APPLAUSE)

If there's one thing that should
be extended to the ladies,

it's the right to talk.

♪ (UPBEAT MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪

(PROTESTERS CHANTING)

REV. PATRICIA:
We sat in restaurants downtown

because they were
all-male restaurants,

and were taken out
by the police.

-ACTIVIST:
You have no intention...
-BAR OWNER: No.

ACTIVIST: ...of changing your
policy of segregated facilities?

-Is that correct, sir?
-If you women are that hard up

for a glass of beer,
I'll be glad to serve you
at the bar.

-CATCALLER 1: Whoo!
-CATCALLER 2: Lookin' good, gal.

REV. PATRICIA:
We drove cars downtown

-to pick up
the downtown secretaries...
-(WOLF WHISTLE)

REV. PATRICIA:
...because they were being
catcalled going to work.

WOMAN: Beat it!

It just touched a nerve

so deeply in me.

I really wanted to go there.
I wanted more.

I wanted to be involved.

And abortion seemed to me
the frontline.

Women were literally dying
because they were women.

Whether or not
people believe in abortion,

abortions, illegal abortions,
are being performed.

And those abortions
must be taken out of the hands

-of quacks and butchers.
-(APPLAUSE)

ELEANOR: There were
women's groups organized

all over the country
that were working on abortion,

but they were working
on publicizing it,

legalizing it,
collecting data on it.

I just wanted to get
something done.

Because I'd had one, I guess,

and I knew what women
were up against.

We had been married
less than a year.

He was in graduate school,

and I was the sole income
for the two of us.

And there I was, pregnant.

At that time, you could not work
as a pregnant woman.

They saw it
as a terrible responsibility

to have a pregnant woman
sitting behind a typewriter.

(TYPEWRITER CLACKING)

ELEANOR:
And forget trying to find a job

if you had small children
at home.

A friend of mine drove me.

I wore little white gloves,
a suit with a skirt.

I was told ahead of time,

"He might ask you for a kiss.
He might ask you to--

Uh, he might ask to hug you
or cuddle you

or... (MUMBLES)
I don't know, whatnot all."

I was terrified.

I got on the table,
my feet went into the stirrups.

It was all done
without anesthesia,

because I had to be able
to get up and walk out of there

as if nothing had happened.

And I did.

HEATHER: By 1968,
I was in graduate school,

working full-time.

I had a lot of other
movement obligations.

And now I was pregnant,

going to be taking care
of a child.

And the number of women
coming through

was more and more,

and it was much more than
I could handle myself.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

HEATHER: I'd go to meetings
on any subject.

At the end of the meeting,
I'd say,

"If you're interested in working
on abortion, come see me."

ELEANOR: And that's
where I met Heather.

We were all very disillusioned
with politics as usual.

JODY: I think a lot of us
realized there

how un-liberated we were...

and we wanted to do something
about it.

Heather Booth said,
"I know what you can do.

You can do abortion counseling."

HEATHER: When I found
about 12 or so women,

we gathered together and went
to Eleanor Oliver's house.

JODY: We talked and talked
and talked about it.

So, we had our politics
pretty well thought out.

HEATHER: When everyone
felt ready to take this on,

I gave them
whatever materials I had.

And Jane, in effect, started.

It was pandemonium for maybe
a minute and a half,

and-- and then, uh,
we got down to business.

♪ (LIVELY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

SHEILA: We actually ran
an ad constantly

in the underground paper.

ABBY: We had the phone numbers
on posters

and little tear-off things
on bulletin boards

around Chicago.

-(PHONE RINGING)
-"Pregnant? Call Jane."

ELEANOR:
We needed a telephone number

for people to call.

"I said, "Well,
we can use my phone.

But let's change it

so that
they don't ask for Eleanor.

How about Jane?

"Nobody's called Jane anymore,
and it's a nice, simple name."

And that's where Jane came from.

"If you have a message
for the Olivers or for Jane,"

please leave your name
and number

"and we will call you back."
Like she lived there.

MICHAEL: Women who called Jane

always wanted
to hear back quickly.

They were desperate.
They'd use that word

more than once.

JEANNE: There would
always be one person

who would tell you
a lot of things,

but she'd forget something
absolutely vital.

Either her name,
or her telephone number.

(TELEPHONE DIAL TONE)

There was nothing you could do,
you had no way to reach her.

ELEANOR: One woman,
she left a message on Jane,

she said,
"When you call me back,"

don't be alarmed if they answer

'Chicago Police Department'
because that is where I work,

"and I'm giving you
my work number."

I remember Jody saying,
"We have a policewoman.

Who wants the policewoman?"

And all of us just sat there,
and I said, "I'll take her."

♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

JUDITH:
At my very first Jane meeting,

the three-by-five index cards
were being passed around

and the information
on those cards was the name

and contact info,
medical details,

how far they were
in the pregnancy,

if there were any known
complication possibilities.

EILEEN: People were so trusting.

They gave you their name,
phone number.

You're coming
for an illegal abortion...

and you're, you know,
"I have two kids."

I'm eight weeks along.
Here's where I live.

Here's my first and last name."
(CHUCKLES)

Five dollars, 75 dollars.

People would tell you
what they had.

Zero money.

She's 21. She already has a kid.

This woman says
she has a dollar.

Here's one, says four dollars.

EILEEN: We would hand around
those cards at the meeting

to match people up
for counseling.

"No, no, I can take that one.
I don't have enough."

You know, "I've got too many.
I can't do that this week."

And so, we would try
to spread those out.

Eight weeks, 18, and you go,
"Okay, I can do that."

Eighteen, 11 weeks. Great.

Eleven weeks, lovely. Six weeks.
Oh, and she's 19. Wow.

Eight weeks, 22. This is great.

Then you'd get somebody
who was 16, 16 weeks... (LAUGHS)

And you'd just be so grim,
and it would go round and round.

DIANE: Gosh, the cards.

You just, you know, your heart
would be going out to them.

They weren't just cards. They--
You knew they were people,

and I knew they were
women like me.

I would probably counsel
ten women a week.

I would call the woman
and invite her to my home.

I would explain to her

exactly what was gonna go on,
in detail.

This is something I contrast
to my own abortion,

in which no one ever explained
a darn thing to me.

LAURA: We had thought about,
how would we like to be treated?

What was worrisome for us
in a medical situation?

We knew that what makes you
terrified is the not knowing.

It wasn't just about
what you're going to experience

during the abortion.

"This is what you're going
to experience that whole day."

Because it's scary enough

that you're having
an illegal abortion.

JEANNE: Women would launch
into these stories.

"I have three children."
"I have no more money."

"My husband is leaving,"
or, "My husband is sick,"

or, "I don't have a husband."

"I'm 17, I want to go to college
and I've got this scholarship

and if I don't do this now..."

They were really cogent
and important reasons,

but we would really try
to make clear to them

they didn't have
to justify themselves.

Their reason
for having an abortion

was their reason.

I was not there
to pass judgment.

(BIRDS CHIRPING)

DIANE:
After a counseling session,

the woman would be given
the address

to what we called The Front.

The Front was like
a big waiting room.

JEANNE: Sometimes women
brought their kids.

You could bring
your sister-in-law,

your husband, you could bring
some moral support.

And that really helped.

DIANE: We would try to have
refreshments, talk to them,

try to keep
a pleasant atmosphere

for people that were probably
terrified out of their minds.

We had a place
that we actually did abortions,

imaginatively called The Place.

So, The Place and The Front.

♪ (SECRETIVE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

SHEILA:
It was a two-part system.

People would be waiting
at The Front,

and then the driver would drive
groups of women to The Place,

and then afterwards
drive them back.

JEANNE: I ended up doing
a lot of driving.

In the morning, you would be
introduced to a new car,

somebody's family car...

and you would have to drive it
all day, like a taxi.

I'd drive a little ways,

and then I would park
and ask for the money.

And everybody would hand
the money forward.

LAURA: We would say to women,

"Pay as much as you can,
because that's going to help pay

for the next person,
who has less than you."

We had to charge

because it costs money
to do abortions.

And, certainly, in the days

when the guy
was doing the abortions,

he was only doing them
for the money.

I was in construction for years.
I was a union tuckpointer.

I made a lot of money
doing that.

But with the abortions,
we made...

four, five, six times
that amount of money, less work.

And you would get real dirty
as a tuckpointer,

and I never got dirty doing it.

So, it was...
it was a step up for me.

When I first met them,
the ladies said,

"Here's how we're going
to do it now."

We're going to have customers
that have the money.

We're also going to have
that don't have the money.

The ones that don't have
the money,

"we're going to do that
for nothing."

"For nothing? Are you crazy?
I'm not going to do it for--"

"Yes, you are."

I think initially
he thought we were ballbusters.

He felt as though he was being
pushed really hard

by a whole bunch of girls.

MIKE: I mean,
I didn't understand it.

It says in the Bible,
a man is worthy of his labors,

and there surely...

that applies to
abortionists, too. (LAUGHS)

Oh, God.
But it all worked out, you know.

He said, "I thought abortions
were like mink coats.

Lots of women wanted them,

but only some of them
could afford one."

I thought he was a blowhard.

You know, sort of a con man

and a showman and a, uh...

a wise guy.

But I also thought
he had a heart.

MARTHA:
He would make little jokes
and put them at ease.

"We're gonna do it together,
and you'll see,

you'll be done
before you know it."

JUDITH:
And he was highly skillful

and treated the women well.

I could see right away
that his vibe, his sensibility,

his way of being with them
was good.

It was a job.

TIA: Mm-hmm.
And you were good at it.

Damn right. (CHUCKLES)

EILEEN: There was an ad,

"Pregnant? Need Help?
Call Jane."

I was about 21.

I had tried birth control pills,
and they made me really sick.

That was really about
the only thing

besides, like, a diaphragm,

which I had no clue
how to use or where to get one.

It was, like, a Friday morning,

and it was really nice out,
I remember.

I took the L. I went by myself.

I thought about
the woman in college,

her bleeding,
and how scary it was,

and how alone she was.

(TRAIN TRACKS RUMBLING)

EILEEN: It was in Hyde Park.

A woman came in
that was the driver,

and she was pregnant.

She was, like,
seven months pregnant.

She's driving people
to get an illegal abortion,

and I just thought
that was so wonderful.

The person who was doing
the abortion came in.

He explained exactly
what he was doing.

"This is going to hurt,
but it won't hurt for long."

"Try some deep breathing."
Very reassuring.

The doctors didn't do that
in those days.

Usually, they were
very condescending,

never told you anything about
what you were taking

or what was going on.

It seemed so odd to me
that it was illegal...

(CHUCKLES) ...and yet it was
the best medical experience

I ever had.

We knew we were good,

and we knew we were going to do
our best for them.

But for the women
coming through,

they were putting their trust

in somebody who was
breaking the law,

who they didn't know from Adam.

We were doing something illegal
and so were they,

and you had to trust.

Just like
the Bob Dylan song, right?

"When you live outside the law,
you must be honest."

That's how we all felt.

(TYPEWRITER CLACKING)

The illegality was constantly
there on our minds.

♪ (APPREHENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

JODY:
Imagine going to the drugstore

and coming out with 500 syringes
in your car

and 500 ampoules of Ergotrate.

And you know
between the druggist

and your house,

you'd better not run
any red lights.

They were clandestine,
they were underground.

Each week, they planned
different locations

for their activities.

It was a moving target.

JODY:
We got so that we could set up

to be a clinic in 15 minutes.

And we could get out of there
in five minutes if we had to.

EILEEN: We had to find people
to offer up

their apartments for us.

That was really a huge chore,
'cause who's gonna do that?

"Oh yeah, sure,
come and spend the day

and do illegal abortions
all day."

MARIE:
My roommate had to agree.

We would allow our apartment
to be used,

whatever the consequences
might be.

I mean, it wasn't like
I talked her into anything,

but I-- I think. (LAUGHS)

I had one friend
who agreed to it,

but when she came home
at five o'clock,
we weren't done.

And she got upset,
but we weren't done!

The day went on longer.

So that-- you know,
that person and I
became not friends. (LAUGHS)

PEACHES: It was very busy.

That was probably
somewhat obvious to neighbors.

Who knows what they thought
was going on?

WAYNE:
Our home was used as a place

the procedures were performed.

My daughter Linda,
when she was six years old,

she would come home
from school sometimes,

walk in the door, and see women
sitting in the living room.

And then she says,
"Oh, they're doing it today.

"I'm going to go in my room
and study." (LAUGHS)

When they were like
four and five years old,

they would have
their friends over.

"And I would say, "Okay,
now you can count to ten.

Now, I want ten
of this kind of pill,

"and ten of this kind of pill,
and fill these 50 boxes."

I think that was good
in developing good work habits.

WAYNE: Our daughters understood
not to talk about it,

but they also understood
it was just part of our life.

(CHILDREN CHATTERING)

JUDITH:
I was married to a lawyer.

He feared that his license
might be endangered

because of his knowledge

of his wife's
illegal activities.

He was nervous. Rightly so.

I mean, we were criminals,
we were felons.

-♪ (ENIGMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
-(PHONE RINGING)

JUDITH: It's like 5:30,
6:00 in the morning.

-(PHONE RINGING)
-JUDITH: The phone rings.

Michael answers it,
says, "It's for Jane."

I take the phone,
and this woman who is in a panic

starts telling me
that she is in Grant Hospital,

right across the street
from where we live.

Suddenly, a man
gets on the phone

and says,
"We know where you are!

We know who you are!
We know what you've done!"

I immediately slammed down
the phone.

We're out of bed in,
like, seconds.

We had to go into furious action

and protect the information
that we had.

JUDITH: The answering machine,
the beeper, cards.

Michael said, "I'm putting
all that stuff in my golf bag."

I went down the stairs
of the fire escape,

-Judith went out the door.
-(CAR ENGINE STARTS)

Got in the car.

JUDITH: We stopped
at a gas station payphone,

called Jody,
told her what had happened.

Jody said,
"Oh, that's just a crank,

doesn't mean anything,
it's not real."

Nothing fazed Jody.

-(CAT MEOWS)
-JUDITH: We went back
and it was all quiet.

So, this guy was just bluffing,

which was exactly
what Jody thought.

♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

JODY: As far as society
was concerned,

we were scumbags.

-RUTH: But we didn't--
-We were doing something bad,

-but we didn't feel that way.
-RUTH: We didn't feel that way.

JODY: We felt that
we were doing the right thing.

Not only was there the need,

but there was a philosophical
obligation on our part,

on somebody's part, to--

to disrespect a law
that disrespected women.

LAURA: Their role
was very Mom and Pop.

Mom and Dad.

Ruth really ran the meetings,

and Jody would be
hanging in the doorway,

chewing the eraser ends off
one pencil after another.

She was so incredibly intense.

She was really nuts. You know?

And, um... And it takes
that kind of nuts.

MARTHA: Jody was the most
charismatic person I ever knew.

She was unrelenting
in her support of the women.

I think her own experience
with abortion

so changed her life.

She just didn't see this issue
as political

until her own experience.

JODY: I felt like a prisoner
of the medical system.

I was very, very sick.

I had cancer,
and I had two children.

And I got pregnant.

I had a very difficult time,

a terrible time,
getting an abortion.

I was in the hospital

trying to get this
legal abortion.

It took ten days
in the hospital,

letters from almost
a dozen doctors,

before I finally got
an abortion.

The doctors were like kings
back then.

They made the decisions.

You don't question a doctor.

OB-GYNs were 95 percent male
at that time.

JODY:
Somehow the medical profession,

which is male-dominated,
got control of women's bodies.

I saw the fight as largely
winning control

back from
the medical profession.

I went to see my gynecologist,

the person who had delivered
my children.

I was pregnant.

And I said, "I really
do not want this child."

And my gynecologist said...

"Well, I can't do
anything for you.

But I can give you the name
of someone who maybe can."

And he gave me Jane's number.

LAURA: A number of women
said they'd gotten our name

and phone number
from their doctor.

So, one of us
would call the doctor

and say, "Hi, this is Jane.

We noticed
you've been referring,

and we want to know
if there's a way

you can be of assistance to us?"

And for the most part,
they would say,

"Don't ever call me again."

ELEANOR: We had a list,
because we were always

trying to find the doctor,
or a person,

who could perform
a safe abortion.

It was very difficult.

MARTHA: You had to be
pretty lucky to have an abortion

by someone who didn't
do you harm.

Sometimes a doctor,
sometimes an abortionist.

You might get recommended
into a situation

that was really very unpleasant
and even dangerous.

You know, I have seen
a lot of that stuff.

These guys
on Madison and Halsted,

two brothers,
they were like that,

really mean.

They would say,
"That's part of the deal.

You're gonna suck my cock
after this is done.

No? Get out."

It was more than you were lucky
to find someone.

You were lucky to have it
be okay.

Because it wasn't always okay.

The fact is,
women died all the time.

Every once in a while, you'd
read about it in the paper,

but no one was taking that on
as a cause.

-(CHURCH BELL TOLLING)
-MARTHA: Especially
in a place like Chicago.

Heavily Catholic city.

Catholic Church had very strong
feelings about abortion.

♪ (ORGAN MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

DORIE: They said Chicago is
the largest Catholic archdiocese

outside of Europe.

We went to Mass
every morning at 5:30.

So, after five years,
I could say the Mass

along with the priest in Latin.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

JEANNE: Chicago is even more
Catholic than it's Polish,

than it's Irish.

That was the whole
political structure.

CARDINAL PATRICK O'BOYLE:
Certain lawyers

and legislators and judges

hasten to loosen the laws
against abortion.

A father...

has no right to kill his babies

after they are born.

Why should we suppose
that a mother has a right

to kill her babies
before they are born?

It's not a theological argument.

It's a put-up job.

I've had two abortions,

and...

I felt that God was with me,

at my side,
in all of these choices.

That it was
a God-given decision.

To exclude women
from ethical agency...

(SCOFFS) ...excludes us
from humanity,

and it turns us
into powerless sinners

against our own selves.

And you can't have that.

♪ (ENERGETIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

REV. DONNA SCHAPER:
As a graduate student

at the Divinity School
at the University of Chicago,

I was always looking
for a part-time job.

There was a sign
on a bulletin board

asking for people to do

spiritual counseling
about pregnancy.

I thought "Oh, that sounds
absolutely wonderful for me."

REV. FINLEY SCHAEF:
There are 37 clergymen

who are members of the service.

REPORTER: What kinds
of clergymen are these?

Would you say they're all
radical extremists,

or could they be
my parish minister, for example?

Might be a minister or a rabbi
anywhere in the Chicago area.

RON HAMMERLE:
The Clergy Consultation Service

came out publicly in support
of a woman's right to choose.

Once the announcement was made,

the phone lines
never stopped ringing.

RECORDED VOICE:
This is the Chicago area
Clergy Consultation Service

on problem pregnancies.

You need only take down
the name and number

of one of the four clergymen
whose names will follow.

DONNA: We were very, very busy.
There was a lot of need.

And in fact, Playboy solicited
the Clergy Consultation Service,

"and said, "We would like
to give you some money.

We think what you're doing
is really good."

And there were people
who said we shouldn't take it,

but mostly we just
laughed our heads off

-and said, "Yeah, let's do it."
-♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

RON: In Chicago,
the Clergy Service and Jane

were parallel organizations.

But the Clergy Service
served women

who had the economic means
to travel for an abortion.

In the early days, the referrals
were made to England and Japan,

Mexico and Puerto Rico.

After the New York law
went into effect,

it changed everything.

NEWS ANCHOR:
In New York State today,

the Senate passed
the long-disputed abortion bill,

a bill that would make abortion
a matter to be decided

between a woman and her doctor.

RON:
The Clergy Consultation Service
began sending

virtually all of our
first trimester cases
to New York.

We were "brokering"

something like
13 million dollars a year

in airfare alone.

I was trying to negotiate
a group purchase plan

with United Airlines.

LAURA: When New York
legalized abortion in 1970,

that meant that all those...

white college students,

who could see themselves
getting on a plane

and flying to New York
and getting an abortion

and flying back, did that.

(JET ENGINES ROARING)

That's what really changed
the demographics

of who called Jane.

It was really
the lower middle class

and the poor women
who were stuck.

If you have other kids,
if you don't have the money,

it was hard to do.

A decent one-bedroom apartment
in Chicago

was going for about 150 dollars
a month.

Illegal abortions cost
between 500 and 600 dollars.

Women of color
were just kind of on the outs,

because they couldn't afford it.

And to me,
that was just outrageous.

My husband Al routinely

would collect money for Jane

in paper shopping bags
at taverns

and laundries and other places
along 53rd Street

in the Black community.

Word of us spread
on the South Side

and the West Side
pretty rapidly.

MARIE: There were more
women of color.

Not necessarily on the team
of people who provided

the abortion services.

But the people who consumed
the services,

the complexion changed.

The women
who came through Jane

were very, very,
very different...

from the women who were in Jane.

We would always say to women,
"You could join us."

But we didn't get
a lot of takers.

So, it was a concern for us.

PEACHES: I was pretty ignorant

of the class issues.

I-- I wonder how, um, offensive

we-- we may have
unintentionally been.

LAURA: We weren't an exclusively
white group,

but we were primarily white
middle-class women.

Of course it felt complicated.

We tried to do it
with as much respect

and understanding as we could.

MARIE: They were providing
services to women.

In particular,
women who couldn't--

poor women who couldn't
afford, um, an abortion.

And I just thought that was such
a revolutionary act.

And I-- I couldn't see myself
sitting on the sidelines.

When I opened the door
and they walked through,

I said, "I'll take care of you."

I felt really good
being able to do that.

(CHILDREN CHATTERING)

I grew up right there
at 2419 West Madison,

across the street from
the Black Panther headquarters,

on the West Side.

When I was about 14,

one of my chums, she came to me

and said
that she was pregnant...

and...

that she couldn't have
the child.

I don't think I judged her,

I just wanted to be able
to help.

Being so young,

we probably didn't even really
understand what an abortion was.

She asked me,
would I go with her,

and I said yes.

We cut school.

And we took the bus.

I recall going
into an apartment.

It was a lot of people.
There was television going.

Kids were there.

It was like being in
a doctor's waiting room,

only it was more homey,
you know, like.

(CAT PURRING)

CRYSTAL O.: All I saw

were white women running it,
in charge.

They described
the whole procedure.

We just...

We lost it. We cried.

Uh, two little girls, we cried.

She decided
that she was going to do it.

So, I waited.

They gave me this book,
Our Bodies, Ourselves.

I guess that's where I got
my sex education from. (LAUGHS)

'Cause I did read that book
from beginning to... (CHUCKLES)

Yeah.

They had called a taxi.

We went on home.

I can't say she was
ashamed of it,

but I don't think
we ever discussed

the fact that that happened.

♪ ("CAN'T YOU HEAR ME CALLIN'"
BY IKE & TINA TURNER PLAYING) ♪

We have three demands,
to repeal all
anti-abortion laws,

to repeal restrictive
contraceptive laws,

and to end forced sterilization.

The things that happen
to women

under the existing system
are so bad,

and so criminal, that we simply
have to get rid of these laws.

These women are driven
into the hands of criminal,

illegal abortionists and die.

♪ Can't you hear me callin'? ♪

♪ I'm right next to you ♪

♪ You can
Hear me callin', honey ♪

♪ If you really
Really want to... ♪

Destroying a life,
a human life, is murder.

There are many of us here who
feel that fetal death is murder.

INTERVIEWER: Perhaps the current
law is unconstitutional.

Well, then the place
to test that is in the courts.

ALAN GUTTMACHER: Mortalities
are largely among the Negro

and the Puerto Rican,
and not the white

in this community,
from abortion, why?

Because a white woman
has the padded pocketbook

to pay for a safe abortion.

Now, is this the kind of thing
you want to continue?

Every woman
in every circumstance

will suffer,

but it will mean
untold suffering

to Black and Puerto Rican women.

We cannot let that happen.

(PROTESTERS CHANTING) Now! Yes!

♪ Will it take a miracle ♪

♪ For you to ever learn... ♪

We need abortion facilities
in this area.

It's not right for women
to have to go to New York

or Michigan, or anywhere really,

in order to control
their own reproductive lives.

It's the natural, basic,
democratic right of every woman.

♪ I'm callin' your name... ♪

♪ (SONG FADES) ♪

JEANNE: After New York
became legal,

women were just angry.

"You could do it in New York,
why can't I do it here?

Why am I in this position?"

And you just said,
"You're right." (CHUCKLES)

"Why are you in this position?

You shouldn't have
to be doing this.

You should be able to go
to a doctor,

just like a woman in New York
can go to a doctor."

♪ (APPREHENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

When I started, it was
in the days of the "doctor,"

the doctor who was not a doctor.

You know, I never gave it
any thought

whether he was an M.D. or not,

until we discovered
that he wasn't.

He was such a good abortionist,
and I knew that from the jump.

PEACHES: I kind of knew
he wasn't a doctor.

I knew that he was involved

with other, uh,
illegal pursuits.

Once, I said, "You know,

sometimes I've thought about
becoming a safecracker.

How would I go about
doing that?"

And he gave me some advice.
(LAUGHS)

Maybe they thought
I was a doctor.

I have no idea
what they thought.

I don't-- I'm not sure
if that ever came up.

Maybe it did.
But I never told anybody

I was a doctor.

TIA:
But your code name was?

-Dr. Kaplan.
-♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪

When, um, we learned that...

in fact, he wasn't a doctor,

it was very hard
on our heads too,

because we believed,
like everybody else,

that doctors were magic.

And they were the ones
who had the power.

Ordinary people couldn't do it.

And here was this
ordinary person.

It was shocking
that he wasn't a doctor,

and I felt betrayed.

And I felt bad, because I was
counseling people

and telling them
it was a doctor.

I was like, "Seriously?"

But nobody was getting hurt.

We were very responsible
in terms of how

the services
were being delivered, so...

you know, if it ain't broke,
don't fix it.

JUDITH: There were women
who left the service.

But I said, "Wait a minute.

This means if he can do it,
we can do it!"

♪ (RESOLUTE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

ELEANOR: My first reaction was,

"No, we shouldn't be
doing that procedure,

not ourselves."

I wasn't ready to do that.

To me, it seemed risky,
and it was risky.

ABBY: I think it was exciting.

This is women's work.

We're just as capable
as-- as he is.

MARIE: I was really surprised
that he would be willing

to teach the women of Jane
how to perform abortions.

I mean, I thought that
that was revolutionary.

Uh, I think it was
a mutual thing,

because I wasn't
going to do it anymore.

♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

And I wanted to get out of it.

'Cause, you know,

the Outfit discovered
what I was doing,

and they wanted me
to work with them.

And you know,
first you work with them

and then you work for them.

And I didn't want
anything to do with that.

So, for the women,
I gave them all the tools

and, um...

I mean, there was no reason
at that point,

there was no reason
why they couldn't.

I mean, then they could really
do a lot of them for free.

EILEEN: Sometimes you'd have
to start with a small dilator

to just try to get inside
of the cervix.

And then this is sort of
a graduated one,

it would get
a little bit bigger.

And then you could fit this in,
and then you could dilate it

to the point that you could...

I haven't done this
in a long time.

Make it big enough that
you could open up the cervix

so that they could do
the abortion.

And then this is one
of the curettes

that you would go in
and scrape the wall with.

It was a great victory to me

to challenge
the medical profession

and show that women
don't have to go to male doctors

with problems that,
throughout history,

have been women's problems.

This work taught me
that I was a responsible person.

And I could take responsibility,

not only in my own life,
but for other people's lives.

Jane was so radically different.

It was the total opposite

of what I had experienced
the first time.

Complete opposite.

When we talked,

they asked, "How far along
do you think you are?"

"When was your last period?"

"Are you eating okay?"

"Can you afford
the hundred dollars?"

They were so detailed in care.

(INDISTINCT CONVERSATION)

DORIE: When I got there,

there must have been at least
six or eight of us

that were going that day.

While other women
went in ahead of me,

I could hear the conversations,

and all I heard...

was kind words,

consideration,

concern.

I could hear this
lovely woman's voice assuring,

constantly, every woman
that was in that room.

The assurance, the trust,
the respect that I got.

When I tell you
they changed my life,

they changed my life.

I was raised in a convent,

and I was beaten by nuns
and abused by nuns.

(BELL TOLLING)

So, I didn't think that women
gave a shit about women.

When I saw women
caring about women,

not insulting them,
not being sarcastic,

not dismissing them...

it was a whole new world for me.

LAURA: We could see it,
in some cases,

how coming through the service

transformed other women.

And that was our intent.

We were building a new world,

and we were doing that
one woman at a time.

But some women were just like,

"Give me my abortion,
I'm out of here,

I am not hearing anything."

Our rule of thumb was that
we kept in touch with the women

for just about two weeks
after their abortions

to make sure they were okay.

It was a worry.
It was always a worry.

I do remember once
there was a woman who--

I was doing her abortion
and she started bleeding,

and it just scared me terribly
because I thought,

"You know, I really don't know
very much about this.

I know this extremely limited
piece of information,

and I'm good at what I do,
I don't do harm,

but I don't know
about the other stuff."

I was thinking,
"I am out of my depth."

But, you know,
those things fade

as there's somebody else
coming in

who says,
"I really need this abortion."

LAURA: If a woman
was having, like, a problem

with bleeding,
we would say to her,

she needed to go to a hospital.

But there were those women
who disappeared afterwards

and you couldn't do follow-up
with them because they...

you could never
reach them again.

♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

A woman came to us...

who seemed okay.

She was African American
and she was pretty young.

JUDITH:
We realized she had a fever.

And we discovered
she had an infection.

So, we knew
that she had done something,

or something
had been done to her,

that injured her.

KATIE:
She was in quite a bit of pain.

I think she knew
that she was in trouble

before she arrived.

I remember her panic

that we were not
going to be able

to do the abortion.

"We said, "We can't do this.
You have an infection.

We want to take you
to the hospital right now.

"This is very dangerous."

And she f-- she put
her clothes on and fled.

(SIREN WAILING)

ALLAN:
It sounds like she arrived

at Cook County
with a neglected infection

that had been going on for days.

She was likely very close
to septic shock.

She would've come
into the triage area

and then up to
the Septic Abortion Ward.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

♪ (SOMBER MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪

JUDITH: We called for
I think it was two days,

two nights, no answer.

And then a man answered
who identified himself

as her family's pastor,

and he said she had passed.

That was the phrase
that he used.

♪ (MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪

Everybody in the...

in Jane was devastated.

We felt an enormous amount
of guilt connected to this.

Not that it was our doing,

but she came through our hands
and we didn't do enough.

No one put her in a car
and took her to the hospital.

We didn't do enough.
We just didn't do enough.

LAURA:
It was horrible, horrible.

But we did not do this.

I don't know
what would have happened

if it was something we had done.

You know, that might have ended
Jane right then and there.

You were a little bit
playing God, and we were young.

To me, I just saw a constant,

endless line of-- of...

of suffering people
needing help, and...

and we were just
such a drop in the bucket.

Such an endless line
of terrible situations.

I finally got to the point
where I said,

"I can't stand to see
any more pain."

It just got too much for me
to deal with emotionally.

We were doing close to 30 a day,
three times a week...

week after week
after week after week.

So, that's a lot.

In terms of her stepping back
from Jane,

Jody said,
"I just couldn't do it anymore,"

and then, you know,

wound up signing herself
into a psych ward.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

JEANNE:
We were getting away with it,

for so long.

It never entered
my pretty little head

that I could get into trouble.

MICHAEL: They put posters up
in the neighborhood.

They put things on billboards.
They advertised.

And somehow, they thought
this was going to escape

the attention of whatever
authority might be interested.

JUDITH: Come on!
Everybody knew!

They didn't come after us.

And they certainly knew
what was going on.

MICHAEL: The clientele of Jane
included daughters,

wives, mistresses of police,

State's Attorney, judges.

It had to be hands-off.

They couldn't have worked
the way they did,

and as long as they did,

with no interference at all,
without that.

It just couldn't have been.

(SIREN WAILS DISTANTLY)

Abortion was illegal
in the state of Illinois,

and mostly, uh, illegal
in every state

in the United States in,
uh, 1972.

But it wasn't on our radar,
not on the Homicide Unit.

We handle murders, rapes,

serious assaults.

A guy getting his eye shot out,

a guy who had his arm blown off
with a sawed-off shotgun.

We had a murder every other day.

And that's what we dealt with.

♪ (OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

SGT. O'CONNOR: When these two
women walked into our office

to tell us that an abortion
was going to happen,

"they said, "Our sister-in-law's
going to have an abortion,

and we think that's a sin,

"and we want you to stop it."

♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪

Abortion didn't exist
in my world. It had never--

It never was spoken about
in my family

or in my social circle.

Never.

I'm an Irish Catholic.
My partner's an Irish Catholic.

We conferred
with the detective sergeant
watch commander,

who was an Irish Catholic.

Then the three of us went in
to talk

to the lieutenant commanding
that homicide office,

who was an Irish Catholic.

He got on the phone to call
the citywide homicide commander,

who was an Irish Catholic.
He had to get on the phone

and confer
with the chief of detectives,

who was an Irish Catholic.
(LAUGHS)

Uh, and abortion was--
All of us were like, "What?"

We didn't want
to get involved in this.

But we were told,
"You're the Homicide Unit.

You're gonna have to do it."

My partner was really mad,

saying,
"What stupid bullshit this is!"

You know,
"We got better stuff to do.

Who cares?"

'Course, obviously, we weren't
involved in either side

of the great philosophical camps
that debated this, you know.

I mean, we were just the guys
stuck with the law.

♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

JUDITH: May 3rd, 1972.

It was a quiet spring morning.

I was taking women
from The Front to The Place

and from The Place to The Front.

JEANNE: I was working The Front,
and it was a very chaotic Front.

There must've been at least four
or five kids running around.

So, it was kind of,
um, festive...

(LAUGHS) ...and a busy day.

MARTHA: I was at The Place.

Abby was there, Diane was there,
and Madeline was there.

I was actually doing abortions.

I had brought a pork roast.
And we put it in the oven

because we wanted
to have lunch together.

The day seemed to just
be kinda moving along.

(SIREN WAILING)

SGT. O'CONNOR:
We don't do surveillance
in the Homicide Unit.

We're all big... big Irish guys
wearing three-piece suits.

We don't exactly blend in.

"But we said, "All right,
we're gonna set up

on the sister-in-law."

We saw the woman come out,

she got in the car,
and they drove 'em away.

JUDITH: I did what all drivers
were supposed to do,

which was drive
as if you are being followed.

Change locations,
go down small streets.

Now, I did not know on that day,

I actually was
finally being followed.

SGT. O'CONNOR:
We followed them

into the South Shore
neighborhood.

And she got out.

-(CAR DOOR SLAMS)
-(FOOTSTEPS)

SGT. O'CONNOR:
Over the elevator doors,

there were these brass numbers,

and an arrow.
And the arrow was going up

-and it stopped at a floor.
-(DINGS)

SGT. O'CONNOR:
So, we knew that's the floor
they were on.

JUDITH: I was taking a woman
back to The Front.

The elevator came up,
doors opened.

(ELEVATOR DINGS)

We stepped back
because there were these guys

on the elevator.

They were like actors
playing cops.

Trench coats, dress shirt,
tie, very shiny black shoes.

White men.

And then suddenly they realized

that we might be
just what they had come for.

SGT. O'CONNOR:
She was about 30 years of age,

formally dressed,
she was wearing a suit,

nylons, heels.

Pete Valesares
was six foot five inches tall.

Peter went right up to her,
grabbed her by the arm,

and in a very stern voice,
he leaned down, he said,

"Did you just have an abortion?"
(CHUCKLES)

JUDITH:
And she burst into tears.

She said, "Yes!"

And he said, "Show us where."

So, she turned around,
she brought us to the door.

When the Homicide Unit
wants to go into a room,

we get into the room.
Door doesn't stop us.

And in we went.

The abortions
were being performed

in the two bedrooms.

SHEILA: We immediately
locked the door to the bedroom.

And the woman
put her clothes on.

We took the equipment
and threw it out the window.

We waited politely
sitting on the bed,

and eventually
someone kicked the door in.

I know we didn't kick
the door down.

So, I-- I'm guessing we must
have just knocked. (CHUCKLES)

There was this
big footprint on the door.

ABBY: They ran to the bedrooms
and started,

"Where's the doctor?
Where's the doctor?"

Opened the windows to see
if the doctor was hanging

by his fingernails
out the window.

SGT. O'CONNOR: We're in that
scratching-our-heads mode.

"Where's the doctors?
There are no doctors?

"I don't know."
"You-- you're not a nurse?"

The women doing the abortions,
that didn't pop into my head.

I mean,
these were just... ladies.

The living room
was full of women, waiting.

Girls all got silent.

I'm looking at these women
who are staring at us.

A very, uh, awkward business.

DIANE:
Martha had put in a pork roast.

I guess it must have smelled
pretty good,

because one of the cops asked,
"What's for lunch?"

And I said, "Pig!"

(LAUGHS)

I was bad.

♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

JUDITH: They cuffed me,
put me in a police van.

I was completely freaked out.

It was freezing in that van.

SHEILA: There was this grille
in the back,

and you could see Chicago
as we're pulling away.

We had these index cards

that had all this identifiable
information about women on it.

And so, we knew
we had to destroy them.

We started eating the cards.

And I don't know
if you ever tried

to eat an index card,
but it's-- it's very fibrous.

JUDITH: I was taken
into an individual office.

There was a cop in there.

He asked me questions.

He said, "That must have been
how you did it."

And I said, "Did what?"

He wants me to say
that I was doing abortions.

I'm not gonna say that.

What, is he crazy?
Think I'm an idiot?

JEANNE:
They were kind of pissed.

He asked me,
"How much do you charge?"

I said,
"Why don't you ask the women?"

He was really frustrated,
and he said,

"I have, and I've gotten
all kinds of different answers!"

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

SGT. O'CONNOR:
We had a bunch of the women

who were waiting
for the procedure.

And we knew who they were.

MARTHA:
They were probably terrified,

thinking,
"I didn't get an abortion today.

Here I am,
in the police station,

and I didn't get an abortion!"

SGT. O'CONNOR: One of them
looked up at me, she said,

"I hope you don't think
you did me any favors."

"I said, "Hey, listen,
I'm just doing my job.

Don't get on me over this,
you know.

"You're a grown-up."

♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

(INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER)

MARTHA: I was not really upset
until they fingerprinted us.

And then it felt like
The Man now had some control

that they didn't have before.

That made it so much realer
than anything else.

♪ (MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪

(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS)

(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS)

(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS)

♪ (MUSIC SWELLS) ♪

♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪

MICHAEL:
Someone at the office said,

"There's an emergency."

Judith and some other women
had been arrested.

My first reaction was, "Oh, God,
here it's finally happened."

(CHILDREN CHATTERING)

EILEEN: I was at Judith's house
babysitting, and I got a call.

Michael said, "Can you babysit
a while longer?"

I'm like, "Yeah."

And he goes, "No, I mean
it might be a while longer."

And it was like... And then
he told me what happened,

I was like, "Oh, my God!"

(PHONE RINGING)

EILEEN: Then the phone calls
started coming fast and furious.

(PHONES RINGING)

MICHAEL:
We started to try to figure out

what we were going to do
and how the hell

are we going to get them
out of jail?

Because jail, it ain't no place.

(SIRENS WAILING)

SGT. O'CONNOR: The only facility
we had for women

is at 1121 South State.

I'm sure that was quite
an experience...

(CHUCKLES) ...to be sent
to the women's lockup.

That would've been worth seeing.

When the poor ladies from Jane
were brought in

with the, uh, streetwalkers.

JEANNE: There were a couple
other women...

(SIREN BLARING)

...who had been picked up
for prostitution.

One of them was...

hilarious.

She told this off-color story
of somebody she knew

who had no teeth
and was famous on the street

for giving two-dollar Frenchies,
and which was... so... (LAUGHS)

Uh, evidently, she was
very skilled at blowjobs.

(LAUGHS)

Our nerves were gone, you know?
We were just...

we just ate it up.

-♪ (TENSE JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
-(KEYS JANGLING)

ABBY: The women said,
"What are you in for?"

And we said, "Abortion and
conspiracy to commit abortion."

And they said, "No!"

SHEILA: There was a woman
who had been involved

in an armed robbery,

and was extremely eager
to turn state's evidence

before somebody else
in the group did.

There was a lot of street smarts
in that cell

that I personally lacked.

DIANE: I heard people yelling.
And that scared me.

I thought, "What is happening

to these women
that they're screaming?"

JUDITH: Women were shouting,
some were crying,

some were in drug withdrawal.

It's a madhouse.

I was a nursing mother.

My breasts were so painful

that I just thought,
"Well, I have to empty them here

into this filthy little sink."

That was some relief.

♪ (MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪

♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

MICHAEL: My thought was Judith
was the best of the bunch

to get out first,
because we have a baby.

She's certainly
not a flight risk.

So, we will pitch that
to the judge

to get the lowest possible bail.

And then we'll have that
as an example

for the rest of them.

Not only was I a nursing mother,
but I was a college graduate,

a white woman,
married to a lawyer.

And all of those things
were going to get me low bail,

and boy,
I did not disbelieve that!

That would definitely
be realistic,

certainly in Chicago.

And, uh, it worked.

♪ (FORLORN MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

JUDITH: When I got back
to the apartment,

it was past dawn.

I remember standing
next to the crib,

and the baby woke up,
and I nursed him.

And that was...

a fine conclusion.

I was enormously relieved.

I could feel the anxiety
coming out of my body,

down my arms, down my legs.

Great moments in motherhood.
(LAUGHS)

(BIRDS CHIRPING)

LAURA: Jody was in a psych ward.

And Ruth called her up
the day of the bust

and said, "You've had
a long enough vacation.

Sign yourself out."

And Jody went
to her psychiatrist and said,

"I'm going to sign myself out,"
and he said,

"I hope this doesn't have to do
with what I've been reading

about in the newspapers."
So, she came back.

♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

PEACHES: It got very busy again.

You'd think all that publicity
would scare people.

It's illegal,

you saw these people
got arrested for it,

and you're still calling them up
on the phone.

Does that mean you're desperate?

Probably.

♪ (MUSIC SWELLS) ♪

It didn't seem like
it was so underground anymore.

Like, it was much more visible.

We didn't know
if people were being watched.

And we had to change
the way we did it.

LAURA: We were doing
these little blitzes

where we would have five women
meet on a street corner

and one of us
would pick them up,

drive them to someone's house.

They would get counseled,

and then Jody would do
their abortions

right then and there.

JEANNE:
There were 11 counts of abortion

and conspiracy
to commit abortion,

and it was one to ten
on each count...

so it was up to 110 years.

For each of us.

So, that's a long time.

We knew that we were--
we were screwed

if we were inside the Ch--
the Chicago court system.

It's dominated by people

who feel as though
abortion is terrible.

And we obviously
had broken the law.

I thought,
"This is really serious."

(CHUCKLES)
"This is really serious."

♪ (BOLD MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

JUDITH: During the time
between the bust

and the Grand Jury,

we were interviewing lawyers.

All but one, men. Of course.

The men were, in different ways

and with different tones,

were so condescending
that it was impossible.

How could we possibly hire
these guys

to represent us
when they couldn't even see us?

In my own experience with
the Chicago Conspiracy Trial,

I-- you know, I just knew
that you could only trust

a few of them
to handle political cases.

The lawyer that I knew
was one of those people.

I called her up and said,
"I got this case."

She was like,
"Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no, no,

-no, no, no, no, no, no, no."
-♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

MARIE: I don't want anything
to do with it."

She couldn't stand hippies.

"I'm like, "Okay, I got it.

But remember,
you're a defense attorney,

and this is an important case.
I'm part of this group,

even though
I'm not a named defendant,

"and I need you to do this."

So, she did.

She said yes. Eventually.

SHEILA: Jo-Anne Wolfson,

unlike some of the others
who seemed to want us

to make
a big political statement,

maybe get to the Supreme Court
with us,

Jo-Anne just wanted
to get us off.

We were all kind of
in sync on that.

MICHAEL:
Jo-Anne was a great choice,

because she had a big mouth,

she didn't take crap
from anybody.

She represented
the Black Panthers,

so she wasn't afraid of politics

and she also wasn't afraid
of the authorities.

JUDITH:
This is what she looked like

the day she came to court
for us.

She was wearing
canary yellow pants,

a canary yellow
sleeveless sweater,

she was carrying a canary yellow
patent leather briefcase.

I don't remember the shoes,
unfortunately.

And she had silver bangles.

This is a white woman
with a deep tan,

silver bangles on her arms
and from her ears.

And she talked like God.

She was so smart
and so sharp

and she looked like that.

It was fabulous.

♪ (TENSE ORCHESTRAL MUSIC
PLAYING) ♪

JUDITH: Jo-Anne was aware
that Roe v. Wade

was being considered
by the Supreme Court.

So, she, um, stalled.

MICHAEL:
She made garden-variety motions.

Motion to dismiss,
supplemental motion to dismiss.

They'd have to be briefed
and responded to and replied to.

All of which took time.

And so, delay, delay, delay.

And that, to me,
was the perfect strategy.

♪ (MUSIC BUILDS) ♪

♪ (MUSIC SWELLS, CONCLUDES) ♪

January of '73, there it was.

Good evening.
In a landmark ruling,

the Supreme Court today
legalized abortions.

The majority,
in cases from Texas and Georgia,

said that the decision
to end a pregnancy

during the first three months

belongs to the woman
and her doctor,

not the government.

Thus, the anti-abortion laws
of 46 states

were rendered unconstitutional.

♪ (PEACEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

Ah, yes!

(LAUGHS)

It was a hallelujah.

Abortion would be legal and safe

throughout the United States
for women and girls.

Truly amazing.

January 22nd, 1973

will stand out
as one of the great days

for freedom and free choice.

This allows a woman free choice

as to whether or not
to remain pregnant.

This is extraordinary.

HEATHER:
The overwhelming majority

of the Supreme Court
was in support of women's rights

to decide when
or whether to have a child.

I remember just feeling like,

"Ugh, finally,"
feeling a sigh of relief.

We were thrilled,

and we thought it was over,
you know?

Who knew what would be--
what would follow.

But we thought, "They-- We won!"

You know, it was over

and it was no longer
our responsibility.

DIANE: Yeah...

I'm glad we could help them,

but-- but they shouldn't
have had to go through it.

That's how I feel.

(SNIFFLES)

♪ (MUSIC SWELLS) ♪

When the decision came down,

Jo-Anne Wolfson contacted
the district attorney

and the charges were dropped.

It was joyous.

My friends weren't gonna go
off to prison.

Oh, we were just so relieved.

We-- Just so relieved.

LAURA:
We were really ordinary women,

and we were trying
to save women's lives.

We wanted every woman
who contacted us to be the...

the hero of her own story.

I mean, we felt such agency.

And we felt so empowered
by saying,

"We're going to do this."

So, we wanted to share that,

that sense of personal power,

with women
who weren't supposed to feel

a whole lot of powerfulness
in their own lives.

We decided
that that would be it.

And then we went on
to the rest of our lives.

You know, that--
We came together

to do something at a time
that it was most needed...

We did it.

And then it was time
to do something else.

We were done.

So goodbye, Jane.

♪ ("CHICAGO" BY GRAHAM NASH
PLAYING) ♪

♪ So your brother's
Bound and gagged ♪

♪ And they've chained him
To a chair ♪

♪ Won't you please
Come to Chicago just to sing ♪

♪ In a land that's known
As freedom ♪

♪ How can such a thing
Be fair? ♪

♪ Won't you please
Come to Chicago ♪

♪ For the help
That we can bring ♪

♪ We can change the world ♪

♪ Rearrange the world ♪

♪ It's dying ♪

♪ To get better ♪

♪ Politicians
Sit yourselves down ♪

♪ There's nothing for you here ♪

♪ Won't you please come
To Chicago for a ride ♪

♪ Don't ask Jack to help you ♪

♪ 'Cause he'll turn
The other ear ♪

♪ Won't you please come
To Chicago ♪

♪ Or else join the other side ♪

-♪ We can change the world ♪
-♪ Yes we can change the world ♪

-♪ Rearrange the world ♪
-♪ Rearrange the world ♪

♪ It's dying ♪

-♪ If you believe in justice ♪
-♪ It's dying ♪

-♪ If you believe in freedom ♪
-♪ It's dying ♪

-♪ Let a man live his own life ♪
-♪ It's dying ♪

♪ Rules and regulations
Who needs them? ♪

♪ Open up the door ♪

♪ Somehow people must be free ♪

♪ I hope the day comes soon ♪

♪ Won't you please come
To Chicago ♪

♪ Show your face ♪

♪ From the bottom of the ocean ♪

♪ To the mountains of the moon ♪

♪ Won't you please come
To Chicago ♪

♪ No one else
Can take your place ♪

-♪ We can change the world ♪
-♪ Yes we can change the world ♪

-♪ Rearrange the world ♪
-♪ Rearrange the world ♪

♪ It's dying ♪

-♪ If you believe in justice ♪
-♪ It's dying ♪

-♪ If you believe in freedom ♪
-♪ It's dying ♪

-♪ Let a man live his own life ♪
-♪ It's dying ♪

♪ Rules and regulations
Who needs them? ♪

♪ Open up the door ♪

♪ (SONG CONCLUDES) ♪