‘The Janes’ Director Speaks Out Against Leaked Supreme Court Abortion Opinion: ‘I Burst Into Tears When I Found Out’

variety.com:

Addie Morfoot ContributorTia Lessin and Emma Pildes were devastated to learn that the Supreme Court may soon overturn Roe v.

Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling legalizing abortion. The filmmakers had just screened “The Janes,” their documentary about abortion activists in the pre-Roe v.

Wade era, at the San Francisco Intl. Film Festival when they learned about the leaked majority opinion that would turn back the clock on women’s reproductive rights nearly 50 years.“I burst into tears when I found out” says Lessin, who with Pildes has been screening “The Janes” around the country since its Sundance premiere. “While I expected some sort of erosion of Roe and some people were even expecting the overturning of Roe, this decision was pretty shocking even to people who were in the know.” The documentary, which will debut on HBO June 8, revolves around the Jane Collective, an underground organization that provided illegal abortion services in Chicago from 1969 until 1973.

The women who ran it – the Janes — also advocated for the woman known by the pseudonym Jane Roe. She filed a lawsuit against Henry Wade, the district attorney of Dallas County, Texas, challenging a state law making abortion illegal except by a doctor’s orders to save a woman’s life.Lessin and Pildes say that the activism that occurred nearly 50 years ago against Wade can be replicated despite a shifting landscape that includes social media.