A snapshot taken half a century ago of some of the women participating in an underground group devoted to helping women get abortions. The group became known as “The Janes.” HBO

LEWISTON — They were known as “The Janes.”

If you were pregnant in Chicago in the late 1960s and the early 1970s and didn’t want to be, you called “Jane” and were connected with a group of women known to perform safe but then-illegal abortions.

In many cases, the members of the group first served in support roles between clients and service providers, and gradually learned how to perform safe abortions themselves, at a lower cost.

It was a time when legal abortions were extremely difficult to get in the United States, leading many women to seek potentially dangerous abortions from unknown and inexperienced providers, often leading to infection and sometimes death.

The Janes, who advertised “Call Jane” on utility poles, bulletin boards and even in the phone book, became known as a safe, reliable source for an abortion until passage of Roe v. Wade in 1973 made abortion in the United States legal.

On Nov. 2, two of the Janes — Heather Booth and the Rev. Dr. Patricia Novick — are scheduled to be at Bates College in Lewiston for a screening of the Emmy-winning HBO documentary “The Janes” and for a discussion after the screening.

Among the groups and people behind the event are the YWCA Central Maine in Lewiston and local resident Paula Marcus-Platz. Screenings and panel discussions are also planned Oct. 30 at the University of Southern Maine in Portland and Nov. 1 at Colby College in Waterville.

Melanie LaMore Gagnon, CEO of YWCA Central Maine, sits at her desk recently in her office at the East Avenue facility. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

YWCA Central Maine CEO Melanie LaMore Gagnon said she hopes the event kicks off local organizing efforts ahead of the 2024 presidential election around important political issues and gets people into voting booths. She said the event ties into the YWCA’s mission to eliminate racism and empower women.

YWCA Chief Program and Impact Officer Amanda Hatch said she hopes people are educated and inspired by the film and that it motivates them into activism about injustices they see in their community. Voting is a resource that helps directly impact the change people want to see, she said.

THE GENESIS OF THE JANES NETWORK

The documentary, which won three News and Documentary Emmy Awards this year, focuses on several women who performed an estimated 11,000 illegal abortions in Chicago in the late 1960s and early 1970s through The Janes, an underground network they established.

At that time, local hospitals had septic wards that were almost always filled with women suffering from injuries due to receiving unsafe, illegal abortions. The Janes underground organization had a record of being safe, and those interviewed in the documentary claim no women were harmed while receiving abortions from people in their organization.

Several of those women were arrested and charged with crimes related to performing illegal abortions, but those charges were dropped after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade that states could not ban abortions.

Many of those women have since gone on to careers in civil rights advocacy beyond abortion and women’s rights.

Booth is founder of what became known as “Jane.” The Rev. Dr. Patricia Novick was an original Jane and a social and racial justice advocate.

Since those early years, Booth has spent a career helping build organizations and campaigns aimed at making the world a more just and democratic place, specializing in organizing and strategizing. Novick has spent most of her life as an advocate and works as an on-the-ground community organizer.

Mug shots of some of the women connected with “The Janes” who were arrested in Chicago in 1972. HBO

Marcus-Platz said she met Novick at an event and the two hit it off. She hoped that by bringing the HBO documentary and discussion to Lewiston, community members could learn from the documentary and by hearing the two former Janes talk about their activism and experiences.

FIGHTING AT THE BALLOT BOX

Though women’s rights have come a long way since Novick and Booth were members of “The Janes,” people need to continue to organize to keep these rights secure, Booth told the Sun Journal. “There are still forces that want to keep women ‘in their place.’”

Novick is inspired by the ways in which young people are using modern technology to connect and engage with audiences in their efforts to implement change, she told the newspaper.

Booth and Novick said the best way to implement change is to vote. Though abortion access is protected in Maine, there are other issues that challenge people, such as access to child care, climate change, the public utility referendum and more, Booth said. All of those issues could be affected by upcoming elections or the possible subject of legislation.

On the positive side, Booth said she sees much more awareness and action in support of freedom and justice among more parts of the population, particularly among young people, compared to previous periods in U.S. history. People are particularly passionate about climate issues, reproductive freedom and voting rights, she said, noting people in the younger generations now are acting on behalf of their moral beliefs.

However, she said there seems to be a stronger, more organized and more partisan opposition to many social justice initiatives now than what was seen in previous generations, along with more funding.

Where there are organized efforts to implement change on behalf of social justice combined with election efforts, Booth said she is seeing positive change, while in areas where there is no organized group effort combined with election action, some rights are defeated.

A poster for “The Janes,” a documentary film available on HBO that tells the story of a secretive women’s collective in Chicago half-a-century ago that helped women get safe abortions. Screenings and panel discussions are planned at three Maine colleges.  HBO

Marcus-Platz said she has seen a lot of energized people who care about social and civil rights issues start nonprofits that are making a difference in the community but noted she does not know how much these organizations are working together toward a specific goal tied to elections.

“There are a lot of great young folks doing terrific things,” she said. “However, I’m not sure that that’s necessarily going to create change if it doesn’t show up in the voting booths.”

Booth noted, “We are on a knife’s edge between a fight for freedom versus authoritarian rule and it remains to be seen what the future will hold, and it is up to us. … And if we show up, when we organize, we can change this world — with love at the center.”

ACLU of Maine Chief Counsel Zachary Heiden will also be speaking as a panelist at the Bates College presentation. It will start at 6:30 p.m. with a screening of the documentary, followed at 8 p.m. by a panel discussion. It will take place in the Concert Hall at Olin Arts Center, 75 Russell St., Lewiston.

The series is free and open to the public, however advance registration is required for each presentation because capacity is limited. To get free tickets, go to the YWCA Central Maine website at ywcamaine.org or to the Bates ticket website bit.ly/Batesthejanes.

Visit ywcamaine.org for more information about the Waterville and Portland screenings.