Women's History: A look back at the Jane Collective

Underground abortion service helped countless women in Chicago get abortions in 1960s

In honor of women’s history month, this is an excerpt from my forthcoming book. In the 1960s, a group of women ran an underground abortion collective in Chicago called Jane. The service has been the subject of numerous movies, books and magazine accounts. Here’s an inside look at how it started and operated. 

In the early 1960s, women were not treated as equals to men in either liberal or conservative quarters. Few women were professors. Those who took classes didn’t get treated as well as male students. 

In 1965, Heather Booth attended a national conference held by the Students for a Democratic Society. They discussed what was known as the women’s program. Booth came back to the University of Chicago and started the Women’s Radical Action Program, or WRAP for short. They ensured women were treated fairly in the courses they took. 

One of Booth’s friends had a sister who was pregnant and suicidal. The friend wanted help finding a doctor to perform an abortion. She didn’t know where to begin.