The Power To Organize and Change the World
Heather Booth, leader, founder, organizer. (Photo By K.K. Ottessen.)
By Heather Booth
While I was still in college in the 1960s, a friend of mine was raped at knifepoint, in her bed in off-campus housing. We went with her to Student Health to get her a gynecological exam. Student Health said they “didn’t cover gynecological exams.” She was given a lecture on her promiscuity.
Another friend contacted me and said his sister was pregnant and nearly suicidal, not ready to have a child. And she wanted an abortion. I hadn’t really thought about the issue before. It was a more innocent time, and in some ways, I was a more innocent person. I said I would try to help. I had been involved with the civil rights movement and the Freedom Summer Project, so I contacted the Medical Committee for Human Rights, the medical arm of the civil rights movement – and found a doctor who said he would provide the procedure, though abortion was illegal in most states.
Word spread. Someone else called. After the third call, I realized we needed to set up a system. I was living in a dormitory, so if anyone called, they could ask for “Jane” and I would get the message. I moved to off-campus housing, and we began to organize. Initially, I recruited about 12 women who wished to get involved with abortion counseling.
By the time Roe became the law of the land, there were more than 100 women who had been part of the service. The women of Jane learned how to provide the procedure and themselves performed more than 11,000 safe abortions.
Over time, after protests and organizing, now of course, women receive supportive counseling and exams when they are raped. I say “of course,” but it only happened because of organizing. And for nearly 50 years, American women had the right to make this most intimate decision of our lives—when or whether or with whom we have a child, guaranteed by federal law. With the overturning of Roe in June, a medical procedure that was accessible, safe, and legal is effectively banned in 26 states.
Now, the public can learn more about “The Janes” through a Women Over 70-hosted panel discussion ,(“The Janes – Activists for Reproductive Freedom, Then and Now”) and two films: The Janes (HBO) and theatrical release Call Jane. We need to tell this story to support a woman’s right to medical autonomy. We need to organize, once again, to recapture a half-century of progress and a woman’s right to choose.
Women Over 70 will host A Deep Talk Forum featuring the founder and original Janes on Tuesday, October 11, 2022, at 11:30 a.m. CT. Register here. An edited version of the program will be available after October 18 on the Women Over 70 website.
““We need to tell this story of The Janes to support a woman’s right to medical autonomy. We need to organize, once again, to recapture a half-century of progress and a woman’s right to choose.—Heather Booth @hboothgo #PowerToChangeStories”
Heather Booth, 76, is a visionary leader who makes big change happen. Ever since her teen years, Heather has championed social movements and built organizations for civil rights, women’s rights, labor rights, and other causes. In addition to the Jane Collective, she is the founder of the Midwest Academy, a national raining institute for community organizing. @hboothgo; https://womenover70.com/events-2/; The Janes on HBO ; https://www.facebook.com/womenover70 ; http://heatherbooththefilm.com/