Past Meeting: November 9, 2023

The Democratic Club of LW held their monthly meeting on December 14 in the Clubhouse II auditorium in conjunction with the Progressive Club. One hundred and twenty residents attended to watch the movie “The Janes,” and then hear from Heather Booth, the founder of The Jane Collective.

“The Janes” is a documentary that provides a brief history of the Jane Collective, a clandestine abortion group working out of Chicago in the late 1960s and early ’70s, told mostly by the women themselves. They provided referrals to safe abortions, and later some of them learned to perform the procedure. Before Roe v Wade was decided in 1973 they helped 11,000 women who were unable to travel to where abortion was legal. While mostly left alone by the police seven members were arrested in 1972 after a tip from two Catholic women. Their lawyer, a woman, was able to delay proceedings until Roe was decided in January 1973.

After the movie Booth, the founder of the Jane Collective, spoke for a few minutes and answered questions. She emphasized that “we are now on a knife’s edge,” and it is time to organize and be active to not just protect and expand reproductive rights, but also voting rights and the right to be free of gun violence. She told everyone to also get their kids and grandkids out to vote.

The Democratic Club will be organizing and acting throughout 2024.