page_title: Jane Collective
section_title: Origins
hierarchical_section_title: Jane Collective / Origins
caption_attribution_description: English: American political activist Heather Booth, in documentary about her by Lilly Rivkin.
context_page_description: The Jane Collective or Jane, officially known as the Abortion Counseling Service of Women's Liberation, was an underground service in Chicago, Illinois affiliated with the Chicago Women's Liberation Union that operated from 1969 to 1973, a time when abortion was illegal in most of the United States. The foundation of the organization was laid when Heather Booth helped her friend's sister obtain a safe abortion in 1965. Other women with unwanted pregnancies began to contact Booth after learning via word-of-mouth that she could help them. When the workload became more than what she could manage, she reached out to other activists in the women's liberation movement. The collective sought to address the increasing number of unsafe abortions being performed by untrained providers. Since illegal abortions were not only dangerous but very expensive, the founding members of the collective believed that they could provide women with safer and more affordable access to abortions.
  Initially, the organization directed the women to male doctors. After a few years, however, they learned that one of their most-used doctors had lied about having medical credentials.
context_section_description: In 1965, University of Chicago student Heather Booth learned that her friend's sister had an unwanted pregnancy that left her distraught and nearly suicidal. Booth had previously not given much thought to abortion access; her exposure to the experience of an unwanted pregnancy led her to consider abortion restrictions as unjust laws, saying, "in the face of an unjust law, you need to take action to challenge it". To seek assistance for her friend's sister, Booth contacted the Medical Committee for Human Rights, who connected her with civil rights leader and surgeon T. R. M. Howard. Howard worked at the Friendship Medical Center in Chicago, and Booth sent her friend to his facility. Word spread that Booth was able to help women obtain safe abortions, and she soon began receiving calls from other women. Operating under the pseudonym "Jane", Booth began taking such phone calls at her college dormitory, referring more clients to Howard, who performed the abortions for $500. Booth later switched to an abortionist alternately referred to as "Mike" or "Nick".
  Booth continued to refer patients for abortions, averaging one per week, mostly for low-income women and women of color. This continued until 1968 when she was out of college, married, pregnant, and employed full-time. With less time to devote to connecting women with abortion providers, she recruited and trained ten other women to help her. She transferred her leadership role to Ruth Surgal and Jody Parsons. The organization, founded in Hyde Park, Chicago, adopted the name Abortion Counseling Service of Women's Liberation, proclaiming that they were for "every woman having exactly as many children as she wants, when she wants, if she wants." They decided that the name was wordy, though; women who called should ask for "Jane", which they considered the "everywoman name". The Abortion Counseling Service of Women's Liberation was a work group of the Chicago Women's Liberation Union. One member of the Jane Collective was known as "Jenny". She was motivated to help provide abortion access by her past struggles to obtain a safe abortion. Jenny discovered that she was pregnant shortly after she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. She sought an abortion due to concerns about the effects of her radiation treatment on the fetus, but was denied by the hospital board. After informing two psychiatrists that she intended to kill herself if not allowed an abortion, she was allowed her request.
caption: Heather Booth, the founder of the Jane Collective
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