Defying the state legislature that outlawed abortion, the Catholic Church that condemned it, and the Chicago Mob that was making the most of it, the members of “Jane” risked their private {and professional} lives to help ladies with undesirable pregnancies. Within the pre-Roe v. Wade period — a time when abortion was against the law in most states and even circulating details about abortion was a felony in Illinois — the Janes supplied low-cost and free abortions to an estimated 11,000 ladies.
