Conversation at the J-School: Mifepristone, Abortion Access, and More

Directors Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes came to the J-School for a screening of “The Janes” on April 19. Their 2023 duPont Award-winning documentary stars an underground network of women that provided safe, affordable, and illegal abortions in pre-Roe Chicago.  

The film takes viewers over 50 years back in time, but couldn’t be more relevant today.

Jessica Bruder speaking with Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes at the Columbia Journalism School.

Recent headlines show a rush of anti-abortion legislation on the move. A new Idaho law makes it a crime to help a minor get an abortion, with up to 5 years in prison. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis just signed a new law to ban abortions after 6 weeks. Republicans in South Carolina are considering legislation suggesting that people who undergo abortions could face the death penalty.

Left to right: Jessica Bruder, Tia Lessin, and Emma Pildes.

“They aren’t carrying out the will of the people,” Pildes told journalist and J-School professor Jessica Bruder in a post-screening talkback. “Seventy-five percent of the people in this country believe in a woman’s right to choose. So why are we here? The decision is going to have profound effects for many generations in many different ways.”

On April 7, a federal judge in Texas placed a nationwide ban on the abortion drug mifepristone, set to take effect on April 14. The Biden administration said this ruling was unprecedented and could unleash regulatory chaos.

In an administrative brief, they condemned the district court for flouting the expertise of five administrations’ worth of FDA scientists and barring access to a drug that’s “been safely used by millions of Americans over more than two decades” as an alternative to surgical abortion. In response, the U.S. Supreme Court enacted an administrative stay that is scheduled to expire today, though the drug remains on the market for now.

“It’s about living in a country that believes women can’t make these decisions for themselves,” Pildes continued. “That’s what is at stake here – the paternalism of this Supreme Court. The fact that they are making decisions the FDA should be making."

Left to right: Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes.

In the midst of the many reproductive rights being crawled back, the film's other director, Tia Lessin, was able to share something that brings her hope.

“We’ve shown this film in a lot of places where abortion is banned and communities where people do great work at great cost and sacrifice. It makes me relieved and hopeful that people aren’t going to stand down. Normalizing this conversation about abortion care makes me hopeful. We hope this film can engage people to tell their own stories about miscarriage, miscarriage for planned pregnancies that go awry and for terminating a pregnancy that’s unwanted. Hopefully, the more we can talk about this it just becomes like having ankle surgery.”

Here, Lessin gestured towards the surgical boot she was wearing following ankle surgery.

“Talk about normalize,” Bruder added. “I mean one in four women probably hasn't had ankle surgery.”