Review: A 1960s underground abortion network in ‘Call Jane’

By Jake Coyle, The Associated Press
Posted Oct 26, 2022

In Phyllis Nagy’s “Call Jane,” Joy (Elizabeth Banks) is a 1960s housewife married to a defense attorney (Chris Messina) with a teenage daughter (Grace Edwards) and a baby on the way. A heart condition, though, threatens her life in childbirth. The only treatment, her doctor tells her, is “to not be pregnant.”

When they, acting on the doctor’s advice, appeal to the hospital’s board for permission to conduct a therapeutic termination, this critical moment in Joy’s life passes curtly. The all-male board members discuss it briefly while not acknowledging Joy, across the table. “No regard for her mother?” she asks. Their votes sound the answer. “No.” “No.” “No.”

Continued: https://toronto.citynews.ca/2022/10/26/review-a-1960s-underground-abortion-network-in-call-jane/

26.10.2022

history of abortion activism

USA – How the first abortion speak-out revolutionized activism

Fifty years ago, under the banner of a group known as Redstockings, women gathered in a West Village basement to share their abortion stories, a radical act that ripples through movements today.

BY JOY PRESS
OCTOBER 19, 2022

“I can tell you the psychological and sociological effect the law has had on me: It’s made me angry!” a woman yelled across the crowded auditorium of the New York City Health Department.

It was February 13, 1969, and a phalanx of female protesters had dramatically interrupted the staid proceedings of New York State’s Joint Legislative Committee on the Problems of Public Health. The issue under discussion was whether or not to liberalize the state’s 86-year-old criminal abortion statute and allow for legal abortion in cases where a woman’s physical or mental health was at risk, or when she was a victim of rape or incest.

Continued: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/10/abortion-stories-speakout

19.10.2022

Commentary

Featured

Abortion: Tell It Like It Is

Abramowicz v. Lefkowitz

Barbara Kaminsky

Center for Constitutional Rights

Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion

history of abortion activism

National Organization for Women

New York Radical Women

New Yorkers for Abortion Law Repeal

Redstockings

Redstockings abortion stories

The personal is political

Thomas Laverne

women's abortion stories

Marie-Claire Chevalier, Catalyst for French Abortion Law, Dies at 66

While in high school in 1972, she was raped and became pregnant. Her illegal abortion paved the way for France to decriminalize the procedure in 1975.

By Katharine Q. Seelye and Constant Méheut
Feb. 10, 2022

Marie-Claire Chevalier was 16 when she was raped by a high school classmate and became pregnant. She then had an abortion, which was illegal at the time unless the woman’s life was in danger.

Her classmate was later arrested on unrelated charges of auto theft. In a bid to avoid prosecution, he revealed Ms. Chevalier’s abortion to the authorities; he was released, and she was arrested and imprisoned.

Continued:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/10/world/europe/marie-claire-chevalier-dead.html

Argentina’s Decades-Long Fight to Legalize Abortion Ends in Victory

The campaign to legalize abortion began sometime in the late 1970s, when the “grandmothers” of the green wave were living in exile across Europe.

By Cecilia Nowell
Jan, 2021

On Tuesday evening, Argentina was filled with
green: green graffiti proclaiming “Children, Not Mothers,” green banners
exclaiming “It Will Be Law,” and green bandanas reading “National Campaign for
Legal, Safe, and Free Abortion.” Teenagers and grown women alike tied the green
handkerchiefs of the campaign to legalize abortion around their necks to signal
their devotion to the cause as they poured out into the streets of more than
120 cities. Together, they stood vigil for nearly 12 hours as the Argentine
Senate debated a bill to legalize abortion.

Just after 4 AM on Wednesday, as hundreds of thousands waited on the steps of
the Palace of the Argentine National Congress, the news came in: With 38 votes
in favor, 29 opposed, and 1 abstention, abortion was legalized. Crowds cheered
and sobbed with relief.

Continued: https://www.thenation.com/article/world/argentina-abortion-feminism/

01.01.2021

Association of Women’s Work and Study

ATEM 25 de noviembre

Cecilia Palmeiro

Commission for the Right to Abortion

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner

Dora Coledesky

Feminist Revolutionary League

history of abortion activism

International Safe Abortion Day

Lucía Perez

Magui Bellotti

María Florencia Alcaraz

National Campaign for Legal Safe and Free Abortion

National Women’s Conference

Ni Una Menos

Not One Less

Rosana Fanjul

sexual assault and abortion

Decriminalising abortion is a long road. Campaigners Vicky Spratt and Diane Munday would know.

Decriminalising abortion is a long road. Campaigners Vicky Spratt and Diane Munday would know.

By Rachel Thompson
Jun 18, 2020

Vicky Spratt and Diane Munday are campaigning to decriminalise abortion in England, Scotland, and Wales.

Diane Munday campaigned to legalise abortion in Britain in the 1960s. Her activism has not only changed women’s lives in this country — but saved them. Along with journalist Vicky Spratt, Munday is fighting for the decrimalisation of abortion in England and Wales. Spratt has also changed the law. Her #MakeRentingFair campaign resulted in the government banning letting agency fees for tenants.

Continued: https://mashable.com/article/vicky-spratt-diane-munday-history-becomes-her/