THE JANES
US, 2022, 101 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Tis Lessin, Emma Pildes.
A documentary about the status of abortion, moral and legal, in the United States from the late 1960s to the early 1970s and the Supreme Court decision, Roe vs Wade.
Over the almost 50 years since that Supreme Court decision, there has been a change of attitude towards abortion in the United States. While there are still many earnest men and women who are Pro-Life, anti-abortion, there is still more who are pro-abortion and have taken a stance Pro-Choice.
This is a film that needs to be seen by those who take both stances. It will reinforce the Pro-abortion stances, taken on moral grounds, especially Christian and biblical grounds. But, the film shows a group of American women in Chicago who were moved by the number of young women especially who were pregnant and did not want to go through with the pregnancy. A group gathered, took the anonymous name, Jane, when they answered the phone, had meetings with the women, took them to the place of abortion, ensured that the situation was physically safe and hygienic. The film also highlights the nature of the “backyard abortions” of the time, the callous attitudes of some abortionists, some who are of sexual predators, and a kind of abortion industry set up by Mafia types.
The film contains a significant number of talking heads, of so many of the women remembering almost 50 years on. And, there are a lot of photos of the women when they were young, footage when they were active, protesting. In their senior years, they are a group of very serious, quite dignified, earnest women who believed firmly in what they were doing at the time.
Because abortion was illegal, they were always in danger of being followed and, at the end of the film, there is a powerful sequence when, in fact, police did follow them and found the women, both abortionists and pregnant women, arrested them and put them in jail, along with the local prisoners for the night, especially the Street walkers of Chicago. Eventually they got legal help from a powerful lawyer who had worked for the Black Panthers. It is still a sobering experience as the women look back. (There is also an interview with a police officer at the time who reflects on his own attitudes and behaviour.)
Which means then that this is a scene in epic and historical document which ever stand one takes – and a reminder that when the stands becomes an ideology there is a danger that there is no possibility for dialogue or mutual understanding.
The film took on more significance because of the time that it was released on American television, the Supreme Court overturned the Roe vs Wade past decision leading to a great deal of legal chaos, antagonism, protests (even around the world), meaning that any abortion became illegal in a significant number of states, remained illegal in other states where women could travel.
While the intentions of the filmmakers might have been to go back into the past, they were clearly not anticipating the 2022 Supreme Court overturning of the legislation.
