The story of a secret network of women in Chicago who, before Roe v. Wade, organized to provide thousands of safe, illegal abortions. Operating between 1968 and 1973 under the name “Jane,” the group provided more than 11,000 abortions, giving women control over their bodies at a time when abortion was criminalized and unsafe. With extraordinary courage, they defied both the law and the dangers of exposure to save lives, often relying on word-of-mouth referrals and a phone number whispered from one desperate woman to another.

The film takes viewers inside their organizing, from the practical logistics of creating safe spaces for procedures to the political and moral convictions that kept them moving forward despite the threat of arrest. Through archival footage and powerful first-hand interviews, the documentary brings the Janes’ story vividly to life.

What makes The Janes particularly compelling as a film is how it combines intimate personal testimonies with an almost thriller-like sense of tension. The filmmakers weave in broader social context—male-dominated medicine, police surveillance, the racial and class inequities of access—making clear that the Janes’ work was about more than abortion. It was about power, autonomy, and dignity. The film also situates their work against the backdrop of hospitals with “septic abortion wards,” once filled with women suffering or dying from botched abortions. After Roe v. Wade in 1973, those wards closed because they were no longer needed—a powerful testament to the life-saving impact of legal access to care.

The victory of Roe transformed the legal landscape, but The Janes resonates powerfully today as the U.S. faces the rollback of abortion rights and the return of underground networks to fill the gap. It situates the story of Jane within the broader women’s rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s, where the fight for reproductive freedom was inseparable from demands for equality in education, employment, and family life. The Janes’ organizing became part of a larger wave of feminist action, showing how control over reproductive health was—and remains—central to women’s liberation. Globally, the film connects to ongoing struggles for reproductive justice in countries where abortion remains restricted or criminalized, offering a lesson in the power of clandestine organizing and solidarity.