Looking for Jane, a debut novel by Heather Marshall, a Canadian writer, is an eye-opening book about motherhood and a women’s right to choose.
The story is particularly relevant at a time when many states in the U.S. have criminalized abortion even when a women’s life is threatened. American doctors who provide this procedure in a state where abortion is illegal risk getting arrested. In Canada, one of Poilievre’s far right MPs has already taken aim at Morgentaler’s legislation which decriminalized abortion.
I can’t help but be reminded that in 1969, Canadian women could only have an abortion in certain places in the country, and only if a committee of doctors decided that a woman’s life was in danger. At this time, many women were turned down for the procedure and were forced to endure back-alley abortions which sometimes resulted in women dying.
Finding Jane is inspired by the Jane network of doctors, nurses and volunteers in the United States who risked their lives and careers to fight for women’s reproductive rights. Roe vs Wade decriminalized abortion in America in 1973. It wasn’t until 1988, in R. V. Morgentaler, when the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the abortion law as unconstitutional. At the time, Canada became one of the small number of countries without a law restricting abortion. This victory for women’s rights was won by the courage of Dr. Morgentaler and the doctors and nurses who worked in secret abortion clinics. These clinics were often raided by the police.
Marshall’s story moves from the present to the past when unwed mothers were often sent to church-run homes where abuse was common, and babies were taken from mothers against their will and sold to childless couples. The novel puts a face to those women whose babies were taken and the various ways it impacted their lives.
Finding Jane was not only a great read, but also one that reminds us of how much women have gained over the years and what may be at risk in the future if rightwing Trumpian governments get elected.