Dear John,
What did abortion look like, in the pre-Roe era? If you lived in Chicago, there was a number you could call — and a woman named Jane would answer. On this week’s On the Issues podcast, Heather Booth — founder of the Jane collective, which helped women find abortions in Chicago prior to Roe — joins us to unpack what we can learn from our pre-Roe past, in our current post-Roe era.
“In 1965 a friend was pregnant and nearly suicidal and wanted an abortion. I was asked to find a doctor for her. I really didn’t know exactly how to approach it, but I went to the medical arm of the civil rights movement, the Medical Committee for Human Rights, and found a doctor, T. R. M. Howard, who I only learned later had been a great civil rights leader in Mississippi and came to Chicago when his name appeared on a Klan death list. I didn’t know that at the time, but I contacted him, made the connection with my friend, the procedure was successful, and I actually thought that was the end of it. But then word spread to others, and I got another call, I made that connection with Dr. Howard, and word spread and I realized I needed to set up a system.”
Over time, Booth explains, demand grew so urgent that the women of Jane learned to perform abortions themselves. “The women of Jane performed 11,000 abortions between 1965 and 1973,” Booth says. “And when people take action we can save lives, we can make a difference, we can change the laws and change the future. And we have to take action as these very precious freedoms are under threat right now.”
And here we are, more than 50 years later, in some ways we are back where we were — women (and some men) helping women find safe abortions, albeit this time with the benefits of abortion pills and better communications technology. Nevertheless, that’s where we are again, given the Dobbs decision.
And now, we are bracing for more states, as they start their 2023 legislative sessions, to try to require internet providers to block abortion pill websites; and zealous attorneys general and local prosecutors are working to bring charges against the networks of abortion pill providers — a conviction in Texas for this carries a life sentence. But these elected officials do so at their own peril: The 2022 midterm elections proved that women — especially young women — condition their vote on a candidate’s position on abortion and women’s rights. Abortion rights advocates won all six ballot measures on abortion this year, in red states and blue states alike. And advocates are already planning for 2024, promoting similar ballot measures in states where voters can add measures to the ballot by collecting signatures.
On Tuesday, in a ceremony at the White House attended by LGBTQ+ advocates and congressional leaders, President Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act into law. The act is a crucial display of support, in the face of a Supreme Court that is currently considering a case that could again allow discrimination against LGBTQ+ people — and that fired a warning shot at marriage equality this past summer.
Finally, this week we also mourned the death of Dorothy Pitman Hughes — feminist pioneer and inspiration for Ms. As executive producer of On the Issues Michele Goodwin explained, Pitman Hughes “traveled throughout the United States, giving voice to feminist concerns. She worked with Gloria Steinem, and really served as a force that helped to push the magazine into reality. Her work had been in advocating for child welfare, for women’s equality, and so much more.”
“At the time, abortion was not legal throughout the United States. And she took the stage, making clear that these were issues that were intimate to women’s economic futures, to their liberation, to be able to free themselves. She was deeply aware of the economic inequalities that women generally experienced, and Black women specifically.”
“We are fortunate that she was in the life of Gloria Steinem. We are grateful for her activism and her leadership. We know that in her work to inspire Ms. magazine, she did more than inspiring a magazine. She inspired a movement.”
Rest in power, Dorothy Pitman Hughes.
For equality,
