Tia Lessin ’89 began working on her movie about a team of clandestine 1960s-70s abortion providers long before this summer’s Supreme Court decision overturning Roe vs. Wade. So, the release of “The Janes” on HBO Max this summer only weeks before the decision wasn’t planned. But, its release seems eerily prescient.

Lessin, who co-directed the film with Emma Pildes, will be on campus Oct. 13 for a screening and post-film discussion at Cornell Cinema.

“There’s so little imagery of what abortion looked like for women when it was illegal in this country,” Lessin said. “We wanted to see women’s faces and the terror and isolation they were going through, to show what it looks like when women are criminalized for getting basic health care. I think we’re going way backwards.”

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