WGS presents The Janes: A film screening and panel discussion

The Janes: A Film Screening and Panel Discussion on the Award Winning Documentary 

Monday, October 30, 2023, 

4:00 p.m. – Social Justice Community Networking

5:00 p.m – Screening of The Janes

7:00 p.m. – Panel Discussion

Talbot Hall

Portland campus

In collaboration with the YWCA of Central Maine, Bates, and Colby, the Women and Gender Studies Program at the University of Southern Maine is hosting a screening of the award winning documentary, The Janes, followed by a panel discussion. The Janes tells the story of a group of unlikely outlaws. Defying the state legislature that outlawed abortion, the Catholic Church that condemned it, and the Chicago Mob that was profiting from it, the members of Jane risked their personal and professional lives to help women in need. In the pre-Roe v. Wade era –– a time when abortion was a crime in most states and even circulating information about abortion was a felony in Illinois –– the Janes provided low-cost and free abortions to an estimated 11,000 women.

Following the film screening, Professor Ashley Towle will moderate a panel discussion featuring Heather Booth, founder of the Janes, Patricia Novick, one of the original “Janes”, and Anna Keller, Executive Director of the Maine Chapter of the League of Women Voters. Beginning at 4:00 p.m. in the lobby of Luther Bonney, community partners such as Planned Parenthood and the Maine Women’s Lobby, whose work focuses on reproductive and social justice will be tabling and have information about their social justice work.