Jane Collective

The Jane Collective was an underground abortion service which operated in Chicago, Illinois, from 1969 to 1973. The collective was started by women when they realized that many illegal abortion providers were not doctors. Since illegal abortions were also dangerous and very expensive, founding members of the collective believed that they could provide safer, cheaper abortions. During the years which Jane operated, the collective performed more than 12,000 abortions, for about $25.00 per procedure — on loan, if the woman was unable to pay at the time.

In 1972, the collective was raided, and the members who performed abortions jailed. The remaining members arranged to take a bus load of women to Philadelphia, for abortions to be performed by Harvey Karman and an assistant. The abortions were performed at an abortion clinic that was openly operating, in violation of Pennsylvania law. A public television crew from a station in New York filmed the procedures, at Karman's invitation, to document his new "super coil" abortion technique. A local woman's group, outraged that the women were being subjected to an untested and possibly unsafe abortion method, protested outside the clinic, letting the air out of the bus tires. When one of the women had to be hospitalized in Pennsylvania, local health officials contacted the Centers for Disease Control, which investigated and found that 9 of the 13 patients not lost to follow-up had suffered complications.

The collective gradually disbanded after Roe v Wade made abortion legal throughout the United States in 1973.