In 1965, before women in America had the constitutional right to choose abortion, a then 19-year-old student at the University of Chicago helped a friend find a doctor who was willing to carry out the procedure illegally.
With desperate women putting their lives in danger by seeking back-alley terminations, it wasn’t long before more were contacting Heather Booth. She quickly realised the demand for the service, and couldn’t handle it on her own.
And so the Jane Collective was set up: an underground network of women who helped other women facing unwanted pregnancies find safe access to abortion. Eventually, some of the members learned enough to carry out the procedures themselves.
Image: Norma McCorvey – the Jane Roe in the 1973 Roe v Wade court case – pictured with attorney Gloria Allred outside the Supreme Court in Washington in 1989
The secret group worked together to provide an estimated 11,000 to 12,000 women and girls with safe and secure abortions before the landmark 1973 ruling known as Roe v Wade, which legalised abortion in the US.
Rape victims, women whose pregnancies were putting their own lives at risk, single mothers who couldn’t afford another child, young women who simply lacked education about birth control – there was no judgement. Women did not have to justify their reasons for not wanting to go through with their pregnancies.
Now, the story of the Janes is being told in a new film, Call Jane, starring Elizabeth Banks, Sigourney Weaver and Wunmi Mosaku.
Banks plays Joy, a wife and mother to a teenage daughter who finds a much-wanted second pregnancy has become life-threatening. When a board of male doctors refuses to terminate, telling Joy she must take her chances, desperate and afraid, she comes across the Janes.
The film has been in the making for several years, but following the US Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v Wade earlier in 2022 (Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organisation) – paving the way for half the US to severely restrict or completely ban the practice – its release seems timely.
‘It was very, very risky’
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Image: An anti-abortion march in Washington in 1981, eight years after the Roe v Wade ruling. Pic: AP/Herbert K White
There was a time when every state in America had anti-abortion laws. Critics of the laws accused authorities of punishing women for not managing their sexuality and fertility in ways the government, law enforcement, and medical and religious institutions approved of.
Many women did not know where to find help or were too ashamed or afraid to ask. Some were too poor, or fearful after hearing horrifying stories of back-alley and self-inflicted abortions.
A year before the Janes set up, a woman called Gerri Santoro, from Connecticut, died trying to obtain an illegal abortion; her photo became the symbol of an abortion-rights movement.
In Chicago, Illinois, the Janes changed things.
Call Jane producer Robbie Brenner consulted with some of the original Janes when making the film. “It was very, very risky,” she said. “They were thinking way out-of-the-box. What they did, and what they eventually accomplished in a relatively short time, was nothing short of revolutionary.”
‘Abortion is not controversial – curtailing the right to it is’
Image: Elizabeth Banks works with the Centre for Reproductive Rights in the US. Pic: Alyssa Schukar/Centre for Reproductive Rights via AP
For Banks, known for starring in films such as The Hunger Games and the Pitch Perfect series, playing Joy was more than just a role; as the leader of the creative council for the Centre for Reproductive Rights charity in the US, the right to abortion is an issue she feels passionately about.
Speaking while promoting the film in the UK, she told Sky News she disputed the idea that abortion is a controversial subject.
“In fact, the majority of the electorate in America – and obviously here in England – support safe and legal abortion access,” she said. “We represent the majority opinion that is not very controversial whatsoever.
“I do think that there’s a lot of conversation around it right now, of course, because of our Supreme Court and the Dobbs decision.
“But I just always warn people about creating a scenario where we talk about abortion as if the abortion side of it is the controversial side; the side that’s controversial is not allowing women the access to safe, legal abortion healthcare that they need for any variety of reasons. That’s what’s controversial, is curtailing that right.”
‘We don’t have to justify it’ – how Lily Allen spoke in favour of the right to choose
Image: Pic: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP 2022
Following the Dobbs ruling, many examples of why women might need an abortion – rape, life-threatening circumstances, harm to the baby – were given by those campaigning against the decision.
But some, including singer Lily Allen, questioned why women should have to justify the procedure at all.
Speaking out about having an abortion herself, the star, who is a mother of two daughters, wrote on Instagram: “I wish people would stop posting examples of exceptional reasons for having abortions.
“Most people i know, myself included, just didn’t want to have a f****** baby. AND THAT IS REASON ENOUGH! WE DON’T HAVE TO JUSTIFY IT.
“It shouldn’t have to be said, and I think all these examples just play into the hands of the baddies.”
What is Roe v Wade – and Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organisation
Roe v Wade was the landmark case of a Texan woman, Norma McCorvey, who was referred to by the legal pseudonym of Jane Roe to protect her privacy, but later spoke out publicly.
In 1969 she became pregnant with her third child and was unable to get an abortion because the state only allowed them if the mother’s life was in danger
Her lawyers brought a case against the local district attorney Henry Wade to the US Federal Court, claiming Texan abortion laws were unconstitutional. The district court for the Northern District of Texas ruled in her favour, but Mr Wade appealed against the decision at the Supreme Court.
After hearing the arguments, in 1973 the court revealed seven of its nine justices had voted in favour of Ms Roe. This meant a change to the constitution, that regardless of any state laws banning abortion, every woman in the US had the right to one within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy – and some rights beyond that.
On 24 June 2022, six out of nine Supreme Court justices voted in favour of upholding a 2018 Mississippi state ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
But the case did not only affect Mississippi. In arguing its case, the state went a step further, asking the court to overrule the two most fundamental pieces of abortion legislation in the US – Roe v Wade and Planned Parenthood v Casey, a 1982 case which built on Roe v Wade by putting more abortion rights into the constitution.
By ruling in favour of Dobbs, the Supreme Court effectively scrapped the guarantees on abortion rights, putting laws into the hands of individual states instead.
At least 12 states have now banned abortion, while others have imposed restrictions or are made moves to make the procedure illegal.
Image: A pro-life protest took place in London earlier in October. Pic: AP/Alastair Grant
There are those who feel differently, even in the UK, where abortion has been legal for decades.
Earlier this week, anti-abortion demonstrators took part in a pro-life protest in Parliament Square in London on the 65th anniversary of the bill being passed.
Call Jane shows women being accepted by the Janes to have their termination no matter what the reasons behind the decision.
“I find it fascinating that women are sort of infantilised in this way when it comes to their own bodies and healthcare,” Banks told Sky News. “That we somehow don’t know what’s best for us. So a group of men need to be sure that we’re making the proper decision. You know, it’s insulting, frankly.
“It also is insulting to imagine that women are somehow pregnant all alone, and that no man was involved and isn’t involved in the decision to end the pregnancy either, which is nearly never the case, you know?
“I mean, I find that fascinating that we’re sort of… the act takes two but then everything beyond that is only about the woman. We are responsible for everything afterwards. And, you know, every unwanted pregnancy is a result of irresponsible ejaculation. And if this movie can remind anybody of that, I’m happy for it.”
‘Abortion is a normal part of millions of women’s lives’
Image: Banks and co-star Wunmi Mosaku in Call Jane. Pic: Vertigo Releasing
The film also shows different women having different feelings about having a termination. For some it is a painful choice, but a simple decision for others.
“It is, of course, scary for some women,” says director Phyllis Nagy. “And we do have lots of stories like that already. So we thought that we had a responsibility [with Call Jane] to normalise the procedure and to show a group of women getting together to solve an unsolvable problem, or seemingly unsolvable.”
“I also think Phyllis really wanted to make abortion healthcare feel very normal as part of, you know, many, many millions of women’s lives, a decision that’s made every day,” says Banks.
“And that is not some scary, troubled moment for most women. It’s just, ‘oh, some sperm met an egg and the cells are dividing, and that wasn’t my intention. And so I would like that to stop’. That’s all.”
Three people are in critical condition after a vehicle drove into a crowd in Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles Fire Department’s (LAFD) public information officer Captain Adam Van Gerpen told Sky’s US partner NBC News the vehicle hit a taco cart before colliding with a large number of people outside a nightclub.
“Apparently there was a vehicle that had somebody who lost consciousness,” he said. “We have reports that there was a gunshot wound in one of the patients.”
Pictures from the scene in Santa Monica Boulevard, in East Hollywood, show a damaged grey vehicle which has mounted the pavement with debris strewn across the ground.
Sergeant Travis Ward, central traffic division watch commander at the Los Angeles Police Department, said it was too early to say if the incident was intentional and that an investigation was ongoing.
The LAFD said three people are in critical condition, six in serious condition and 19 in fair condition.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch, two Wall Street Journal reporters and the publication’s owner, News Corp.
The US president has accused the named individuals of defamation, claiming they acted with malicious intent and caused him overwhelming financial and reputational harm.
The lawsuit, which was filed in Miami, seeks at least $10bn (£7.5bn) in damages.
In a post on Truth Social, Mr Trump called the lawsuit “historic legal action” which was filed on behalf of himself and all Americans who he said will “no longer tolerate the abusive wrongdoings of the Fake News Media”.
“I hope Rupert and his ‘friends’ are looking forward to the many hours of depositions and testimonies they will have to provide in this case,” he wrote.
It comes afterMr Trump claimed that a letter he allegedly wrote to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein was “fake” and said he would sue the “ass off” Rupert Murdoch, who owns the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), which first published the story.
The publication had said Mr Trump wrote the letter as part of a collection Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, planned to give him as a 50th birthday present in 2003.
It claimed the message, allegedly from Mr Trump, featured several lines of typewritten text, concluding with: “May every day be another wonderful secret.”
The text was framed by what appeared to be a hand-drawn outline of a naked woman, the WSJ claimed. The letter is also said to have featured the signature “Donald”.
Mr Trump immediately denied writing the letter when the WSJ report was published on Thursday night.
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Memes of Epstein undermine victims, says lawyer
“The Wall Street Journal printed a FAKE letter, supposedly to Epstein,” he wrote on Truth Social.
“These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don’t draw pictures. I told Rupert Murdoch it was a Scam, that he shouldn’t print this Fake Story. But he did, and now I’m going to sue his ass off, and that of his third rate newspaper.”
Mr Trump ignored questions about Epstein as he signed a cryptocurrency bill at the White House earlier on Friday.
The president’s lawsuit comes as the US government filed a motion to unseal grand jury transcripts related to Epstein, who took his own life while awaiting trial in 2019.
In a Manhattan federal court filing, the Department of Justice said the criminal cases against Epstein and Maxwell are a matter of public interest, justifying the release of associated grand jury transcripts.
Earlier on Friday, Mr Trump said attorney general Pam Bondi had been asked to release the transcripts because of “the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein”.
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The president has faced increased scrutiny over his alleged friendship with Epstein since his administration’s U-turn on the so-called ‘Epstein files’.
Mr Trump pledged to release files on Epstein during his presidential campaign, as his MAGA movement accused the Biden administration of suppressing the extent of Epstein’s paedophilia, predatory behaviour and his so-called “client list” – thought to contain names of the rich and famous who conspired with him in his child sex trafficking operation.
But after a review of the evidence the US government has, the Justice Department recently determined that no “further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted”.
Venezuela releases jailed Americans in prisoner swap
The Trump administration said on Friday that it had negotiated an exchange with Venezuela, resulting in the release of 10 jailed Americans.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio said the prisoners, who had been held in the South American country, were “on their way to freedom”.
Image: Men in the CECOT jail in EL Salvador. Pic: Reuters
In return, 252 Venezuelan migrants being held in El Salvador have been freed, the Venezuelan government said.
They had been held in the notorious maximum security CECOT prison after being deported by the US.
Donald Trump has called an alleged letter he wrote to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein “fake” and said he will sue the “ass off” Rupert Murdoch, who owns the paper that first published the claim.
In multiple posts on Truth Social, the US president accused The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) of fabricating the letter that it claimed was written by Mr Trump as part of a collection of letters addressed to Epstein that his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell planned to give him as a birthday present in 2003.
According to documents seen by the WSJ, Mr Trump’s letter featured several lines of typewritten text framed by what appeared to be a hand-drawn outline of a naked woman.
The paper said the letter concludes “Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret”, and featured the signature “Donald”, allegedly drawn across the woman’s waist, meant to mimic the appearance of pubic hair.
Image: Epstein took his own life in prison in 2019. Pic: AP
Responding to the WSJ’s claims, Mr Trump wrote: “The Wall Street Journal printed a FAKE letter, supposedly to Epstein. These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don’t draw pictures.
“I told Rupert Murdoch it was a Scam, that he shouldn’t print this Fake Story. But he did, and now I’m going to sue his ass off, and that of his third rate newspaper. Thank you for your attention to this matter! DJT.”
He said earlier he would also sue the WSJ and News Corp, which Mr Murdoch owns. The WSJ is published by News Corp subsidiary company, Dow Jones & Co.
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1:47
From 16 July: Trump: Epstein case is ‘a boring story’
The Justice Department has not responded to the WSJ and the FBI declined to comment.
In a separate post, Mr Trump said he has asked the attorney general, Pam Bondi, to release “any and all pertinent grand jury testimony” in the case of the paedophile financier who was found dead in his Manhattan cell in August 2019, shortly after he was arrested on sex trafficking charges.
Analysis: The credibility of the Epstein-Trump letter rests on the word of the WSJ – until an actual document is produced
Classy, it’s not.
The alleged letter sent to Jeffrey Epstein by Donald Trump has a typewritten note inside the hand-drawn outline of a woman. There’s a squiggly signature – “Donald” – below the waist.
It shows friendship, certainly – the dialogue from “Donald” to “Jeffrey” reads: “Happy birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret.”
However, it doesn’t quite produce definitive proof of impropriety.
The Wall Street Journal hasn’t produced the document and, until it does, the story’s credibility rests on its word.
Whether it rests easy will be tested by Team Trump – it was clear last night that prominent MAGA figures were rallying to the president’s cause and turning their anger towards the Wall Street Journal – circling the wagons and shooting the messenger.
Trump has threatened to sue the Wall Street Journal and has targeted its owner, old friend Rupert Murdoch. “I’ll sue his ass off,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
It’s a billionaires’ struggle symptomatic of the wider acrimony. Trump can pursue Rupert Murdoch through the courts, but the MAGA millions will be more difficult to pin down.
Trump supporters who stood behind him as he screamed “cover-up” by the so-called “deep state”. They stand before him now, let down.
Donald Trump has authorised his attorney-general Pam Bondi to release grand jury testimony in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation – it’s something, but it’s far short of everything.
He is the man who did more than most to bake conspiracy theory into US political culture, so he can hardly complain it turns on him.
It has, and how.
The release of any documents, Mr Trump said, would be subject to approval by a court.
The justice department has previously said it had around 200 documents relating to Epstein and that the FBI had thousands more. It is unknown how much of this is grand jury testimony – which is typically kept secret under US law.
Ms Bondi responded to the president on X, writing: “President Trump-we are ready to move the court tomorrow to unseal the grand jury transcripts.”
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“It really doesn’t sound like something Trump would say tbh,” the tech billionaire wrote on X, before going on to ask where the evidence against Epstein allegedly held by the FBI had gone.
The Trump administration has come under criticism after the president appeared to U-turn on his own promise to release more information about the Epstein case publicly.
In the run-up to the US election last year, Mr Trump drew on rumours and conspiracy theories that appeared to accuse the Biden administration of suppressing the extent of Epstein’s paedophilia, predatory behaviour and his so-called “client list” – thought to contain names of the rich and famous who conspired with him in a child sex trafficking operation.
Ms Bondi fuelled these rumours in February by telling Fox News that the alleged Epstein client list was “sitting on my desk right now to review”.
In the same month, the justice department released some government documents regarding the case, but there were no new revelations.
After a months-long review of additional evidence, the department earlier this month released a video meant to prove that Epstein killed himself, but said no other files related to the case would be made public.
The decision was criticised by many in Mr Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, who Mr Trump later called “weaklings”.
Sky News has contacted the White House for further comment.