Volunteers, lawyers and non-profits are creating sanctuary networks for people seeking abortions in the United States.
Los Angeles, California, US – It was 1969 and Sunny Chapman, then 19, needed an abortion.
It was four years before Roe v Wade would enshrine abortion as a constitutional right in the United States, and Chapman had heard about the Jane Collective, a feminist network that provided underground abortions in Chicago.
“I called Jane,” she said. “You know you’re in good hands, you know you’re going to be OK. But it’s still terrifying.”
A woman called back to vet her, and then connected her with a nearby counsellor, who scheduled the procedure. “They told me to stand on a particular corner wearing a particular colour sweater, which I think was yellow, and a car would pick me up,” Chapman said.
The car drove her to an apartment on the city’s south side. Then she was blindfolded and seated with other women in a van that took them to a house where a doctor would perform the procedure.
“I was further along than I knew, and the doctor didn’t want to do it because I was in the second trimester,” she told Al Jazeera. “I was crying and begging him.” Two Janes in the room with her convinced the doctor to complete the procedure. “It was unbelievably painful,” she recalled. “They dropped me off on my corner, and I was fine.”