The Abortion Counseling of Women's liberation
Before 1973, abortion was illegal, making it impossible for women to have true control over their bodies. "Women with money could travel to a country where abortion was legal. Those without that option could take chances with illegal abortionists in this country. Others tried dangerous self-induced abortions, making the coat hanger a national symbol of women's desperation. Each year an estimated 5,000 women died from botched abortions." “Jane” was the abortion counseling service of CWLU. They “worked with more than eleven thousand women and girls (the youngest under twelve, the oldest over fifty), all of whom came to the Service for abortions before the Supreme Court decision on Roe v. Wade in late January of 1973.” “The Service began in the mid-1960's with personal research and referrals by a college student, and grew into a group that counseled women and then performed abortions for those who chose to abort so that shortly after the Roe decision in 1973, when the group disbanded, they were closing an underground abortion clinic created and operated entirely by laywomen.” Now that abortions were legalized, the union was able to move on to other issues such as safety in healthcare clinics and inexpensive pregnancy tests.
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"I knew there was a women's liberation movement. I was aware of it, but I didn't know where it was. I didn't live among politicos. I had no idea where to go to find the action. I was wondering--what was [the women's movement] really all about? In that summer [of 1970], I thought I was pregnant. It would have been a very, very bad idea for me to have a baby at that time. So I was seeking an abortion. I called a friend in medical school; he said, I'll get right back to you. He called me and said, "Here is the number to call. Ask for a woman named Jane. . . I believe very, very strongly that abortion is a motherhood issue. Abortion as an "issue" in the USA is about a lot of things: law, money, sex, medicine. But at the base, at the root in the radical sense, it's about motherhood--deciding whether or not to make a person inside your body, give birth and be responsible for that life--for years. Janes always believed that women should have babies when we want them and abortions when we need them."
--Julie Enszer, former member of "JANE"
--Julie Enszer, former member of "JANE"