Kaplan, stopped doing them under pressure from organized crime. Through contacts made at those hearings, the committee identified about 150 families whose stories they explored for the documentary. Two members of the Chicago Police Departments homicide unit show up to the apartment where the abortions were being done that day and were baffled. DEL BARCO: Posting the phone number on bulletin boards and underground newspapers, the Janes set up a clandestine system. Lawmakers may have the power to legislate which actions are legal and which are not, but they cannot simply end abortions. After helping organize Black voters in Mississippi, she turned her activism to women with unwanted pregnancies. They felt compelled to do this even as they understood their own limitations.. Documenting evidence of potential war crimes in Ukraine. The broadcast version also updates viewers on same-sex marriage in Florida. This is going to hurt, but it won't hurt for long. Judith Arcana was one of them. Anne Fowler (top row, left) is anEpiscopal priestand outspoken pro-choice advocate who served as theRector of St. John's Church in Jamaica Plain, MA, on the board of directors for Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, and on the board of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. The films stories of womens desperation are haunting and ominous. On June 1, 2016 the film will be released to more than 70 local public television stations via APT. None of the participants would change their minds, but the dialogues changed their lives. Rather, to invoke Ijeoma Oluo, they are working according to their design. The broadcast version of the film is significantly different from the film festival version, in that it highlights USFs role in bringing media attention to the Johns Committee, ultimately causing the committees downfall. Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival 2013 That also means empowering through education, via practices designed explicitly to provide information. Cole and Savannah LaBrant, who run a family YouTube channel called "The LaBrant Fam" where they have over 13 million subscribers, have faced backlash for releasing a video on April 9 labeled a "documentary" about abortion. Capitol Police removed a pro-Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) protester from a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday after the woman interrupted a line of questioning from Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham. Cassanello, Mills, Hos and their former students launched a fundraising campaign to cover the cost of licensing images and music in the film. There's reason for people on opposing sides of abortion to talk, even if they disagree Kate Isaacs, Excellent, important, timely, urgent and needs to be seen and discussed widely Peter Coleman, Founding Executive Director of the Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict and Complexity (AC4) at The Earth Institute at Columbia University and author of. This fall, Himes, a former Wall Street banker, won an eighth term as Connecticuts 4th District representative in Congress. / 54m. Have you watched the film on your local PBS station? January 28, 20223:00 PM ET. MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: The. UCF Center for Distributed Learning, 2015 - University of Central Florida Won an Emmy award for his abortion documentary "The Committee" in 1971 only one year after he left his advertising business and established Cusack Productions. Nobody wants an unstable banking system.. That is when such a situation arises. ARCANA: When abortion is not health care, it's felony homicide. Dorrie Barron tells us what it was like for her to get an abortion before the Janes and Roe v. Wade came along. We came together to do something at a time when it was most needed, collective member Laura Kaplan said at the documentarys conclusion. If you do not see your local station listed here, we urge you to contact them and ask them to air this film. The collectives origin story is not unlike the origin stories of other movements: A call for help catalyzes an action, which results in another related action, and another. The film points out that Black women and Latinas suffered the most from the criminalization of abortion in Chicago and nationally because they often could not afford to travel abroad or to other states that legalized abortions beginning in 1970. Her civil rights activism also introduced her to Dr. T.R.M. Home Video DVDs of The Abortion Divideare available from ShopPBS. Editor's note: This review was originally published at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. ET Wednesday, featuring the voices of more than a dozen former members of the group, informally known as Jane, who recount their experiences helping women get access to abortions when they were illegal. The Supreme Courts Dobbs decision has successfully overturned a womans federal right to an abortion; nearly 50 years later, Roe v. Wade is no longer the law of the land. FRONTLINE is a registered trademark of WGBH Educational Foundation. Lee. The class also watched the only documentary previously made on the subject, Allyson Beutkes Behind Closed Doors: The Dark Legacy of the Johns Committee. In the documentary, members of Jane, who themselves were predominantly middle- and upper-class white women, spoke about recognizing the problematic dynamic. Abortion: Stories Women Tell directed by Tracy Droz Tragos, documents what women at an Illinois abortion clinic were experiencing when Missouri legislators passed the extreme law mandating anin-person informed consent process and a mandatory72-hourwaiting period between the time you sign your consent and your procedure. As media typically displays and argues abortion is for careless young women, this documentary depicts how those in need of abortion range in age, race, motivation and marital status. Rep. Jim Himes, D-4th District, was tapped last year to lead the U.S. House Select Committee on Economic Disparity and Fairness in Growth, an issue he said is in my face every single day in his southwestern Connecticut district home to one of the nations highest concentrations of millionaires and some of its most economically distressed communities. The 30-minute documentary, "Grit & Grace: The Fight for the American Dream," features three families facing varied economic challenges a North Carolina man grieving his parents while working to finish college, a family caring for twin sons with special needs in West Virginia and an immigrant mom in California who struggled to keep her business Florida Film Festival 2013 As the day nears that the Supreme Court might overturn Roe v. Wade, the directors said they hoped viewers would draw inspiration from the former Janes.. The constant threat of not just being arrested for getting an abortion but for even talking about one which was a felony. The letter sent on Thursday was addressed to a number of UN agencies and officials, including the Working Group on Discrimination against Women and Girls; the Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; and the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Privacy. The centerpiece of their message: The most dangerous place for an African American child is in the womb.. In the spring of 2012, the film began screening in film festivals in Florida and over the next two years it screened in festivals all over the world, winning many competitions, prizes, and awards. DEL BARCO: The Janes hired an attorney who had represented the Black Panthers. But now, without having to pay Mike, they remodeled their payment service by reducing the price from $500 to $100 and offering a pay-what-you-can option. When the decision was delivered on Jan. 22, 1973, legalizing abortion throughout the United States, Wolfson quickly petitioned the district attorney, and all charges were dropped. Out Twin Cities Film Festival 2014 "I wanted it over with and I didn't . The Supreme Court Has Overturned 'Roe v. Taking the lead in the red state race to make The Handmaid's Tale a documentary, South Carolina Republicans have introduced a bill that would impose the death penalty on women who get abortions. Mississippi residents might get back the ability to enact public policy through statewide ballot initiatives. Web Site Copyright 1995-2023 WGBH Educational Foundation. The film details how the women of the Chicago-based group worked and helped women obtain safe and affordable abortions. In reality, the Jane Collective was not unique. A new documentary series warns about the dangers of chemical abortions, as the Biden Administration has recently removed restrictions on the abortion pill . BOOTH: I'm hoping that it's actually a call to action. The film traces the committee's origins in the era of McCarthyism and anti-gay propaganda while detailing the personal stories of those intimately involved with its activities. The Dobbs ruling pushed the US even further out of line with its human rights obligations, including its obligation to ensure access to abortion and to eliminate structural racism and discrimination, said Annerieke Smaak Daniel, womens rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. UCF OFFICE OF LGBTQ SERVICES The movie focuses on the tale of a real person, Abby Johnson, a former director of Planned Parenthood, who claims she left the organization after witnessing a 13-week abortion on an ultrasound.. BOOTH: A friend of mine said that his sister was pregnant, nearly suicidal, not prepared to have a child. Even before last year's Supreme Court overturning of Roe v. Wade, a recent international surge in films about abortion rights and the endangerment thereof from period pieces like . Photos taken by Flip Schulke Flip Schulke Same-sex marriage became legal in Florida in January, 2015. Copyright 2022 NPR. And although they continued to disagree, together they successfully prevented future violence. I was just laying there trying to, you know, get my breath, and I knew I was bleeding. Some women left the collective because they felt both personally betrayed and that they had betrayed the women they counseled. FRONTLINE goes inside the fight over abortion, told through the stories of women struggling with unplanned pregnancies. Maryland House of Delegates Speaker Adrienne A. Jones gestures to Gov. Filmmakers Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes wish their new HBO documentary, The Janes about a group of Chicago women who covertly helped thousands safely obtain abortions in the late . We knew that some would be injured, some would die, former member Judith Arcana says in the film. Directed by Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg, the film documents how even conservative presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush supported abortion rights, which changed by 2018 when Republican politicians continued to use anti-abortion as an organizing cause and voting incentive for citizens. Call this number, and ask for Jane. Lets hope it incites us to action, and not to despair. MARIE LERNER: We need to turn the anger, the fear, the concern we've got into protest. IE 11 is not supported. The documentary and supporting materials serve as a perfect springboard to have healthier, deeper, more connective conversations about abortion in your context. Ending the constitutional right to abortion has had far-reaching, and in some cases life-threatening risks, the authors write including for those seeking miscarriage care, those forced to travel across state lines for abortion, and those denied care for potentially fatal complications such as ectopic pregnancies. NPR's Mandalit del Barco has this report. The House State Affairs Committee passed a bill making it illegal for an adult to transport a minor across state lines for an abortion, with the intent to conceal it from the parents or guardians . The students who made the film graduated, but stayed in touch with Cassanello and Mills about the films success. Pervasive sexual assault by the men conducting abortions. RICHARD HARRISON Republican. DEL BARCO: In 1972, police raided the operation and arrested seven of the Janes, including Arcana, who told NPR she was a nursing mother at the time. One Jane would drive them to a home they called the front, where another Jane would counsel them. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. For years, illegitimate authorities have been chipping away, state by state, rule by rule, impacting women's lives on the most intimate decision of our life. Arcana was married to Pildes father, Michael, so she was familiar with the history of Jane, Pildes said. JUDITH ARCANA: Women did awful things out of fear and desperation. DEL BARCO: The film shows how the Jane Collective was different. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. "The Janes" is streaming on HBO Max. AMY SIMPSON, UCF College of Arts & Humanities Web Team, LOU ELLEN KRAMER The abortion debate has long dominated political discourse on Capitol Hill, particularly in recent years. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: The person who was doing the abortion came in. Footnote 1 The chair of the Republican National Committee, Mary Louise Smith, supported abortion rights, as did First Lady Betty Ford, who declared Roe v. Wade a "great, great decision." Likewise, Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, who had taken a leading role in the fight for abortion rights in New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s . The USs role as a leader on the world stage does not exempt the country from these obligations in fact, it should require them to do more, said a representative from the Global Justice Center, which is one of the signatories. Abortion restrictions, the signatories write, deny womens decisional and bodily autonomy in a way that rejects the agency, dignity and equality of people who can become pregnant.. Seven of the women were arrested in a police raid with charges of abortion and conspiracy to commit abortion in 1972, just before the historic Supreme Court decision. Its pretty hard to tell stories and to be evocative about tax policy, Himes said. Columbia/SONY, Inc. Anita Bryant Orange Juice Advertisement Among the signatories are the Global Justice Center, Pregnancy Justice, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Filmmakers Tia Lessin and Emma Peldes. Released in 2018, Just after Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement from the Supreme Court, Reversing Roe examines how the abortion debate became more heated than ever before. We tried to do it with as much respect and understanding as we could.. The following people and organizations have made the public television broadcast of our film possible through their generous contributions. Get in the bathroom. You'll receive access to exclusive information and early alerts about our documentaries and investigations. To help you learn more about the history behind this courts contentious ruling, TheWrap has gathered five essential documentaries to watch. The groups in the letter claim that overturning the constitutional right to abortion contravenes the USs international obligations as a UN member organization. Exclusive: letter from human rights groups says overturning of the constitutional right violates USs obligations as a UN member state. Prior to the Roe v. Wade case, the so-called "Janes" built the underground organization and assisted an estimated 11,000 women. Will they matter? In this short documentary, FRONTLINE followed a group of African American anti-abortion activists and their work inside the Black community. CT proposal causes confusion, concern, Shelton group to host Syrian refugee family, Suspect in rape at CT housing authority property rejects offer, West Haven public housing waitlist highlights 'national crisis', Is CT recycling going into the trash? Both projects wrapped up this month. A new documentary tells the story of "The Jane Collective," a group that helped women with nowhere else to turn for a safe abortion, in the days before Roe v. Wade. While serving as an usher at his Wichita, Kansas, church, Dr. Tiller was killed by an anti-abortion extremist. Suncoast Emmy Award Nomination - Editor Educational DVDs of The Abortion Divideare available from ShopPBS for Teachers. Tel : 617-923-1216 The development of medication abortion has vastly changed the landscape. TIA LESSIN: There's audacious women who outmaneuvered the Chicago Police and the Catholic Church and the Chicago mob to help other women in need. Abortion: Stories Women Tell is streaming on HBO Max. Seven Janes were arrested, along with the clientele in the apartment. An abortion is a procedure to end a pregnancy. Gasparilla International Film Festival 2012. CARL VAN NESS ANDY HUSE, ARTSERVE FT. LAUDERDALE Additional funding is provided by the Abrams Foundation; the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; Park Foundation; the Heising-Simons Foundation; and the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation, and additional support from Koo and Patricia Yuen. We were done. N. ADAM WATSON And for too long, the US has been able to avoid that type of international scrutiny, she said. Some women tried to self-induce abortions using objects or chemicals, which often led to infection and sometimes death. Abortion is a common procedure ( one in four American women will have one, according to the Guttmacher Institute) that has been so flattened into an "issue" that it can feel revelatory to just. The assurance, the trust, the respect I got when I tell you they changed my life, they changed my life., She added, holding back tears, When I saw women caring about women it was a whole new world for me., The Jane Collective is estimated to have provided around 11,000 abortions from 1969 to 1973. From left: Martha Scott, Jeanne Galatzer-Levy, Abby Parisers, Sheila Smith and Madeline Schwenk. Detailing the decades-long abortion debate, these docs give context to the historic Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade. Howard agreed to help the friends sister and continued to perform abortion services for women who came to Booth for assistance until she lost touch with him. Especially now. This interdisciplinary seminar was a cooperative effort between the History Department and the film program in the School of Visual Arts and Design. Members of the underground group informally known as Jane. With the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett days before the 2020 presidential election, conservatives secured a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court and the chance to shape American life and policy, including abortion rights, for a generation. AT UCF Their work dramatically changed when Mike the man who had been performing the procedures after Howard, and who, unbeknownst to some of the Janes, was not a medically licensed physician decided that he didnt want to do it anymore. In the aftermath of John Salvis murder spree at two Brookline clinics, leaders from opposing sides of the abortion debate met together in secret talks. The documentary and supporting materials serve as a perfect springboard to have healthier, deeper, more connective conversations about abortion in your context. The documentaries below follow doctors, patients, plaintiffs and protesters through periods when politicians on both side of the aisle fought to either maintain or dismantle the Roe v. Wade verdict all these years later. She reached out to women at various activist meetings and, quickly, dozens of women joined her. Before there was Roe V. Wade, there was Jane, and the HBO documentary The Janes (on Crave in Canada at 9:00 p.m. U.S. lawmakers began a wide-ranging two-year investigation into U.S. strategic competition with China Tuesday night, with testimony from Chinese human rights activists and former U.S. national . Suncoast Emmy Awards 2014, Broadcast Education Association Festival of Media Arts 2012, Atlanta's Out On Film LGBT Film Festival 2014 The system is tilted in favor of people who have already made it, and we need to be really serious about addressing that, he said. A new documentary tells the story of "The Jane Collective," a group that helped women with nowhere else to turn for a safe abortion, in the days before Roe v. Wade. This documentary, accompanied by dozens of in-depth interviews published as part of the FRONTLINE Transparency Project, examined then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnells decades-long campaign to transform the nations highest court and its profound implications. The documentary begins with a cautionary tale. Around this time, too, abortion became legal in New York state and Washington, D.C., which meant that a large demographic of their clientele middle- and upper-class white women could travel to obtain a legal abortion (abortion was still illegal in Illinois). The U.S. Supreme Court intends to overturn Roe v. Wade, according to a draft majority opinion Politico obtained and published May 2. The experience would forever change how they speak to and about each other. Here is a partial list of stations that will air The Committee. Vessel is Rebecca's story: one of a woman who heard and answered a calling, and transformed a wildly improbable idea into a global movement. Although some initially hesitated to appear on camera, all of them understood that these rights were slipping away and that these stories were relevant, said Tia Lessin, who co-directed the film with Emma Pildes. Over the course of 16 months, beginning last July, the Select Committee on Economic Disparity and Fairness in Growth conducted a dozen hearings in Washington and several more in locations around the country, addressing a range of issues from education to housing, labor unions, small business support, infrastructure, social programs and tax policy. "We've been telling you for the last 20 years, no one wants that! In fall 2011, professors Robert Cassanello and Lisa Mills taught an Advanced Documentary Workshop class at the University of Central Florida. PBS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. The leaked draft opinion from the Supreme Court signaling an intention to overturn Roe v. Wade makes HBO's upcoming documentary "The Janes" extremely timely. DAVID MORAN KAREN GRAVES KATHRYN PAULSON The film's stories of women's desperation are haunting . The Fight For Women's Bodies Contains some upsetting scenes. Essential Partners Watch documentaries chronicling Americas abortion battle and the transformation of the U.S. Supreme Court. It chronicles the real-life story of a group of women who helped those seeking abortions in Chicago more than 50 years ago. Documentary shows how women ran underground abortion network before Roe v. Wade ruling, according to a 2019 BuzzFeed essay written by Allan Weiland. Wheres the doctor? The films stories of womens desperation are haunting and ominous. The institutions that serve us are not broken they are working according to their design. DEL BARCO: Until the Supreme Court decision in 1973, abortion was a felony in the state of Illinois, as in most of the country. BROWARD COUNTY SHERIFFS OFFICE After Tiller documents how four remaining third-trimester providers have continued carrying Tillers legacy. Accuracy and availability may vary. The group helped an estimated 11,000 women in Chicago get access to safe, affordable abortions in the late 1960s and early 70s. Directed by Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg, the film documents how even conservative presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush supported abortion rights, which changed by 2018 when Republican. by removing unnecessary regulations on certain drugs. Many people around them, including children that they already had, would suffer. Similar laws are passed in Alaska, Hawaii, and Washington state. To arrange a press screener, an interview with the filmmakers, Josh Sabey and Sarah Perkins, an interview with an Essential Partners expert, or an interview with participating members of THE ABORTION TALKS dialogues, please contact: Daniel Pritchard Florida Senator Charley Johns chaired the committee, and its aim was to root out communist and homosexual teachers and students from state universities.