What a Story of 1970s Abortion Activism Can Teach Us Today
For the Jane Collective, organizing safe abortions in pre-<em>Roe </em>America didn’t just serve people in need—it also protected a more hopeful future.
Since Friday, when the Supreme Court , I’ve been grappling with a sense of gnawing disbelief at how instantaneously the contours of reality can change. The fact that the seismic change in protections for women in America could easily be seen coming didn’t make its arrival any less destabilizing. On Thursday, we had a constitutional right to abortion. On Friday, we didn’t. In a blink, foundational ideas about equality and justice dissolved and recalibrated themselves as something much more brutal and atavistic. The shift was so immediate that my brain still can’t come to terms with the facts: that so many women will die, will be financially ruined, will never get to know.
