A HBO documentary looks to the past – a secret, women-run network of abortion providers in the late 1960s – as a window into the future of restricted reproductive rights in the US
, starring Elizabeth Banks as a fictional Jane client-turned-member-turned-abortion provider and Sigourney Weaver as a dauntless organizer modeled in part on real-life leader Jody Parsons, premiered at Sundance earlier this year and will get a wide release this fall.
The context in the late 1960s is different than now, but the reasons people seek abortions – in fear, confidence or, often, desperation – remain the same. She wasn’t ready. Rape. Lack of finances. Struggling to stay afloat with the kids she has. Medical risks. She simply doesn’t want to have a child. In one of the most poignant sequences of the film, several Janes hold up the index cards used to keep track of the calls, which were read aloud and passed around to members for follow-up.