Sundance review: 'The Janes' lets the women who spearheaded an abortion-rights movement to speak for themselves

If there must be talking-head documentaries, let those heads have the sort of powerful voices and fascinating personalities as directors Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes convene in “The Janes,” a history lesson about abortion rights that is more relevant than some would like it to be.

The women interviewed here were all involved in an underground network that ran in Chicago from 1968 to 1973 that was called, simply, Jane. The idea was that if a woman was pregnant back then — when abortion was illegal in 46 states — and didn’t want to be, and couldn’t afford to fly somewhere it was legal, they would call Jane. The number was printed in underground newspapers and on bulletin boards all over town.

The women involved with Jane would take down a woman’s information on a 3-by-5 index card, ask them to come to a location, called “The Front,” for a consultation — and from there be taken to another place, called “The Place,” where someone could perform an abortion.

This service didn’t spring up out of nowhere. Many of the women interviewed recounted their own experience trying to end an unwanted pregnancy — and describe bloody procedures, uncaring practitioners, condescending doctors, and a whiff of Mob involvement. (It’s Chicago.) They also described Chicago’s power structure as patriarchal, and the male leadership of the protest movement, from the anti-war marches to the Black Panther Party, weren’t too supportive of women’s issues. So the first members of Jane teamed up and went to work.

Lessin (who co-directed the 2008 Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner “Trouble the Water”) and Pildes get engaging interviews with the onetime Jane members — most of who must be in their 70s now, but are still fierce in their defense of reproductive rights. And while the movie’s narrative stops in 1973, when Roe v. Wade made the Jane network unneeded, the undertone of this vital chronicle is that history is on the verge of repeating itself.

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‘The Janes’

★★★1/2

Premiered Monday, January 24, in the U.S. Dramatic competition at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Screens again on the festival portal, Wednesday, January 26, for a 24-hour window starting at 8 a.m. Not rated, but probably PG-13 for language, footage of police violence, and verbal descriptions of a medical procedure. Running time: 102 minutes.