ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS CALL

An underground abortion ring provides support for women in pre–Roe v. Wade Chicago in a novel based loosely on the real-life Jane network.

In the spring of 1969, on the cusp of divorce from her husband, Gabe, Siobhan Johnson is blindfolded and taken to an undisclosed location to have a back-alley abortion, supported by her friend Veronica Stillwell. Two years later, Siobhan and Veronica have founded Jane, a thriving underground network offering safe, sanitary, and very much illegal abortions. Amid a delightful cast of supporting characters, Maher centers the story around three women: Veronica is a wife and mother who works tirelessly to balance her double life and whose previous miscarriage amps up her anxiety about her current pregnancy; Patty Buford is a friend of Veronica’s who knows nothing about Jane and who spends her days being the perfect housewife—never mind her distant husband, who may be having an affair; and Margaret Jones is an English professor and new volunteer who becomes increasingly aware that her boyfriend, Gabe—yes, that Gabe—isn’t the dreamboat she’d hoped he’d be. Rather than delivering an action-packed tale of heroics in the fight for justice, Maher makes a feast of ordinary morsels. After all, real advocacy, as Siobhan says, mostly “involves hundreds of mundane tasks. But it all adds up to a remarkable, liberating act.” As tensions creep in—from Veronica’s risky pregnancy to the near-constant police presence outside Jane’s various locations and the reappearance of Patty’s wayward sister, Eliza—interpersonal conflicts are refreshingly resolved with healthy adult communication. Race and class struggles are given ample focus—Black patients, who make up the majority, are at greater risk of arrest than white patients, something Black volunteer Phyllis Williams is all too happy to point out to her privileged white peers. When the women of Jane are faced with arrest, the looming passage of Roe v. Wade is their salvation and a heartbreaking reminder of what women have since lost.

A character-rich story of risky, remarkable activism that resonates more strongly than ever.