THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT
Madeline Schwenk
May 12, 1941 – December 11, 2013
“I counsel people who are getting abortions. It’s not legal, but it’s safe and we do a good thing.”
Women’s reproductive rights advocate. Original member of Jane: The Abortion Counseling Service. Chicago NOW. Illinois Citizens for the Medical Control of Abortion. Chaired the Chicago NOW Abortion Rights committee.
![Janes_MSchwenk](https://i0.wp.com/veteranfeministsofamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Janes_MSchwenk.jpg?resize=300%2C169&ssl=1)
Photo. Formed in 1965, Jane was an underground network in Chicago that counseled and helped women who wanted to have abortions. From left: Martha Scott, Jeanne Galatzer-Levy, Abby Pariser, Sheila Smith and Madeline Schwenk were among the seven members of Jane arrested in 1972 (Courtesy of Martha Scott).
![#2MSchwenk](https://i0.wp.com/veteranfeministsofamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2-3.png?resize=460%2C295&ssl=1)
Madeline Schwenk sorting mail at NOW headquarters, Chicago, 1970.
More About Madeline:
- “Code Names and Secret Lives: How a Radical Underground Network Helped Women Get Abortions Before They Were Legal,” by Clara Bingham, Vanity Fair, April 17, 2019
- “Chicago’s Forgotten Pro-Choice Warriors,” by Marcia Froelke Coburn, Chicago Magazine, March 19, 2019
- “The Janes,” HBO documentary
- “Jane: An Abortion Service,” Produced and Directed by Kate Kirtz and Nell Lundy, 1995
- “Abortion: The Issue Still Burns,” Chicago Tribune, January 1978
- National Organization for Women, Chicago Chapter Records, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Illinois at Chicago
- The Jane Collective on Wikipedia