street roots
5
July 5, 2013
A R CA N A , from page 4
School, which I taught in.
And there was the abortion counseling
service, which has the nickname Jane. And
all the women who are in it are called Janes.
And what the service did to begin with, in
the very very beginning was to find people
who were competent abortionists and refer
women to them because women were
always looking. It was against the law.
Of course there were many people who
were doing abortions. There always have
been, there always will be, because abortion
is one of the things people need. Some of
them are vicious and greedy. And that is one
of things that happens when abortion is
illegal. But many of them, certainly in those
days, are neither vicious nor greedy. They
are kind, generous, decent, and thoughtful.
They use the skills they learn in a variety of
places to help women and girls.
Early Jane work was about finding the
good guys and identifying the bad guys: “Go
here, don’t go there.” Over time, though, we
began to say, “Hey, there is stuff here we
can do.” We figured out, we learned, we
discovered, that our main guy, the one we
worked with most of the time because he
was really good and generous and kind. We
found out that he wasn’t an M.D. There
were many responses, not just two. Big
arguments: “What are we going to do?” and
“if he can do it, then we can do it. We want
to learn.”
Ultimately, he taught us. He had been in
the army in the Korea War in the 50s. He
was a medic and he trained that way, and
learned to do abortions. He taught us. And
then he was gone and we did everything.
We counseled the women. We did the
abortions. We did whatever aftercare we
could. We had a little secret team of back-up
docs just in case sojnething went wrong.
Because even with regular medical
procedures, occasionally something goes
w r o n g . S o th e r e w a s th is g ro u p o f
anonymous types who certainly did not want
to be known but were “good guys” who were
willing to help us. So that’s what we did.
That’s what I did.
E.F.: There are obvious issues facing
abortions in the political atmosphere. It’s
pretty ugly right now for reproductive rights.
What is your take on these big issues,
including access, which is really important
and still limited.
J.A.: Many people believe that because
Roe has not been overturned by the
Supreme Court, although it seems likely,
that everything is OK. But actually,
everything is very seriously not OK in most
of the United States. Forty-nine out of 50
states have created laws that limit access to
abortion. Forty-nine out of 50. Not a good
record. (Oregon is the exception.)
Even in those places where it is relatively
more accessible than not, there are barriers
for very young women, for poor women, or
even for women who don’t happen to have
an extra several hundreds of dollars
available to them suddenly and
unexpectedly. Also, this atmosphere we
have been talking about - social, political,
cultural atmosphere - affects the medical
tech people as well. Nurses, doctors,
midwives, dulas, many of whom are thinking
and struggling in this same arena that
workers who want to do the same kinds of
things that Janes did.
But the fact that Roe is still on the books
has in no way kept anti-abortion activity
from being limited severely — not only the
actual practice of doing abortions, but
knowledge about what it is, how it works,
when it needs to be done.
My personal analysis is that the really
smart people in the anti-abortion movement
would rather not overturn Roe because it’s a
cover for them. They can say Look, this is
the law of the land.” And at the same time
they move, very effectively, state-by-state,
region-by-region, county-by-county, township-
by-township, to essentially eviscerate that
law. They have been wildly successful.
I want people talking. Talking in small
groups where they feel comfortable. Not
debating, not dealing with the “other side.”
Talking.
E.F.: What do think will be the final
catalyst for these conversations.
J.A.: I don’t know that there is one
catalyst. In every community there are often
little catalysts here and there. For instance,
there will be a particular thing that happens,
like some young woman will die because of a
butchered abortion in her desperation
having told no one of her situation.
The really terrible stuff is always catalytic
because people are outraged, disgusted, and
frightened. Another kind of catalyst is the
recognition and realization that comes from
the kind of learning.
As the characters in the Jane Bill are
arguing about: it’s pretty dangerous to be
known when you are against the law or
against the tide. That’s more our condition
now. We were against the law, now we are
against the tide. But you know about the
tide: the tide turns. For example, the online
stuff is so useful and it’s so dangerous.
E.F.: Dangerous? Do you mean to the
individuals like Edward Snowden?
J.A.: Yes. And to the people they are
talking about. If you are organizing, then you
have other peoples’ lives in your keyboard.
So you are endangering yourself, Snowden
being the current, Julian Assange, and all of
these folks. And, in this case, we did a
tremendous amount of stuff by telephone
and in person. It’s just too risky, I think.
P H O T O BY B A R B A R A G U N D LE
E.F.: Bills have progressed in many state
legislatures this year to limit abortion access,
including Texas and Ohio.
contraception, reproductive health, and
reproductive justice, it is true that some of
these guys actually ... we’re talking
ignorance, it’s astounding - their stuff about
J.A.: Right, nothing after 20 weeks. And
rape, about child abuse, about sexual slavery
in some places, an even smaller number or
and trafficking. Their ignorance is deep.
require ultrasound, or parental consent, or
Their ignorance is broad and wide.
spousal consent. Or all of the above. All of
So all of this constitutes the quote-
that is not only
unquote “War On
emblematic of, but
Women.” It isn’t only
the guts of, the
about the particular
success of the anti
theme and subject.
I d e ifi see why yemtg
abortion movement.
It’s a generic thing. I
women w ith the power and
Oregon is the 50th
don’t like the phrase,
the
energy
and
the
desire
state — the only state
it’s tacky. It’s just a
and
the
passion^
that
1
have
which has no
slogan, it’s like
restrictions at the
something you shout
seen In them w ill sot make
moment. But we have
at a pep rally.
common cause w ith their
to deal with the same
issues that everybody elder women and people
E.F.: What
they know, people they%e
else does. If you do
conversations do you
not live in Portland,
read, people they%e studied^ wish would happen
Eugene, Bend, or
about reproductive
people
they%e
worked
w
ltK
Ashland, you have to
rights?
to
make
these
changes
and
travel a long way. If
you have a job, you
J.A.: One
i o this learn in g»
might have to miss
conversation or series
work, which would
of conversations I
put your job in
always want is to talk
jeopardy. If you have kids, you have to have
about what abortion actually is and what it
child care for those children while you
means in the life of a women or girl that is
travel. Plus, you have to pay, minimally, up
pregnant. And also talking about how they
to several hundred dollars, and if all of that
feel and think about that. And how they
makes your time lag even greater, then you
think and fell about the history of abortion,
are looking at a procedure that is more
globally and in the United States. I want the
complicated, more costly, much more
information about that history bandied
difficult to find a practitioner for. And that’s
about. I want it discussed by great numbers
even in Oregon, where we don’t have, yet, at
of people.
the moment, any of those tremendously
In the United States, I’ve actually heard
restrictive laws in place.
people say, “Well, abortion: Feminists
But at the same time that Oregon is
created that in the '60s.” I’m thinking, well,
looking good comparatively, we are now a
not exactly. People have known how to abort
very clear target. A lot of money supporting
a fetus for literally thousands of years in
anti-abortion proposals in legislation is going various ways. In the Philippines, there is a
to be coming at us — is coming at us.
massage version. In various countries all
over the globe, there are herbs that women
E.F.: What do you think about Democrats
have used. These things are not 100 percent
dubbbing the Republican policies as a War On
(effective) but what I am saying is that it has
Women?
been done for a long time, and that people
should know that it’s been done for a long
J.A.: I understand why the two major
time, that people should understand that
this is not something recent that came out
political parties play that way. It’s
opportunistic, on the part of the Dems. On
of the women’s liberation movement. It
the other hand, it could be useful.
would be cool if we could take credit. The
It’s not only about abortion and
fact is, we can’t.
E.F.: You’ve mentioned that even the
Catholic Church has changed its stance. Could
you talk about that?
J. A.: They’ve gone back and forth. This is
the most interesting thing for me: that it is
literally true that different popes change the
rules over hundreds of years. So that at
different times there have been abortions
have been fine until what is called
“quickening,” and it was still called
quickening, by the way, even in the 20th
century. It’s a word you don’t hear very
often in the 21st because now we have
machines that tell us whatever it is, the
people in charge of the machines want us to
be told about fetal development.
Also, when it was the Church — and of
course it was all men - dealing with this,
they talked about the Spirit. They said that
the fetus was not ‘enspirited’ until a certain
time. Of course they argued about the date.
They didn’t know, but they talked about it
anyway. Just as men talk about women’s
bodies now, they talked about women’s
bodies then: in ignorance.
E.F.: What would you like to see happen
beyond the zine?
J .A.: The Jane Bill, that story and other
stories that I’ve written, the movies I hope
to get made, and the plays I hope to have
adapted, and the conversations we hope to
spark. All of those things is like an
underground, really, since the mass media is
already infused with a particular position.
It’s almost like working in the abortion
underground in the late '60s and early '70s,
in that we are so different in our
perspectives, beliefs, and desires, from the
prevailing and accepted generic position.
Let’s face it: the mass media is huge.
Street Roots is remarkable for its
independence in a country where most of
the news media is generic and owned by
right wing position holders. So that’s what I
want. And I don’t see why it won’t happen. I
don’t see why young women with the power
and the energy and the desire and the
passion, that I have seen in them will not
make common cause with their elder
women and people they know, people
they’ve read, people they’ve studied, people
they’ve worked with, to make these changes
and do this learning.