Reviews

The Story of Jane: The Legendary Underground Feminist Abortion Service by Laura Kaplan

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tholmz's review against another edition

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informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

joellegalatan's review against another edition

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5.0

Such a powerful and important piece of history. And very well written.

analenegrace's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative

Being a woman in America is genuinely exhausting and I think nothing has ever summed it up as much as this book has.

Written before the overturn of Roe v. Wade, it has only become more important in the last two years than ever before. This book tells the story of over 100 women who performed over 11,000 abortions on women who needed them even though it was illegal. They made the decision to do direct actions instead of campaigning for legalization and accomplished more than some activists in a lifetime. This feels like a form of direct action lost to the decades.

I cried at least 3 times reading this. Every woman in the book was so brave, including the abortionists and the women getting abortions. And yet, being brave didn't really have anything to do with it; they were doing what had to be done.

Kaplan, as one of the women who were a part of Jane, writes this story from the memories of these women and doesn't just tell this story as an inspirational story; she is honest about their difficulties and the stress that this put on everyone involved. The group's infighting is actually really important because it reminds you not to idolize these women but instead learn from them and try to do more and better.

Jane is needed now, but I really wonder if this is possible now. We need it so much, and yet it feels like society might be at a point where this kind of direct action is almost impossible.

Truly a must-read for anyone who cares about abortion rights and history.

courtneyfalling's review against another edition

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informative inspiring tense medium-paced

4.0

I appreciate in-depth histories of local organizing like this book offers, since it can be so rare to read full case studies of how past activists have addressed interpersonal conflicts, changing goals, organizational structure, and so forth. Sometimes this got bogged down in a confusing amount of detail or names, but overall the narrative was really solid and I learned a lot.

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jeleigh16's review against another edition

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4.75

Besides having a tiny bit of trouble tracking the timeline with the way this book is laid out, I greatly enjoyed reading this. I picked it up to prep for a discussion of a documentary on the same topic, called The Janes, and the extra info it was able to provide me was invaluable. It’s terrifying that we’re back in a world without universal abortion care. Perhaps the Janes will rise again - needs must, right?

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toniak's review against another edition

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4.0

The way this was written was sometimes confusing, but overall I was really happy to learn about this group. People can make a difference if they just decide to.