psychological torture due to his ongoing detention and threats of possible extradition to the united states. u.n. special rapporteur nils melzer will join us from geneva. then we look at the groundbreaking work of the underground feminist abortion service jane, which operated in the years before roe v. wade made abortion legal across the nation. >> it was really a time when iff you needed an abortion for whatever reason, you took your life in n your h hands and you e terrified. absolulutely terrifieded. all you knew wawas that you migt die. that this p person didid not kw what he was doing and he was going to take hundreds of dollars and d you are going to bleeeed to death in some motel room. amy: we e will speak to two forr members of jane, alice fox and laura kaplan, who is also the author of the book "the story of jane." >> we realized the only way for women to have control over this experience was if we took control of the abortion process, and that is what we did. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcomome to democracy now!, democracacynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. president trump said thursday he will impose a 5% tariff on mexican goods and will keep increasing trade sanctions each month until mexixico cracks down on central american migrants heading for the u.s. border. the announcement caused the mexican peso to plunge against the dollar, rattled markets around the world, and set off fears of a broader trade war. trump's taririff threat could derail a trade deal known as the united states-mexico-canada agreement, negotiated as a successor to nafta at trump's insistence. trump announced his plans for tariffs just hours after mexican president andres manuel lopez obrador sent lawmakers the renegotiated deal for ratification. in a statement, amlo condemned trump's immigration actions and called his slogan "america first" a fallacy. this comes as the trump administration is reportedly considering a plan to bar anyone who passes through a third country from seeking asylum at the u.s.-mexico border. the move would effectively prevent most central americans from exercising their right under international law to seek refugee status in the u.s. meanwhile, "the washington post" reports about half of the 2000 unaccompanied minors imprisoned at u.s. border facilities are there beyond a 72-hour legal limit, witith many spending more than a w week in border patrol stations and processing centers. louisiana thursday became the fifth state in the nation to enact a six-week abortion ban when democratic governor john bel edwards signed a bill that offers no exceptions for rape or incest. missouri is poised today to become the first state in the nation without a single clinic providing abortions, as a judge in st. louis weighs a last-mininute legal challenge to plans by state officials to revoke a medical license for planned parenthood's st. louis clinic. on thursday, st. louis police arrested 17 activists at a state office building as they held a sit-in protest demanding a license renewal. hundreds more protested outside, chanting, "my body, my choice!" this is kawanna shannon, director of surgical services at planned parenthood's st. louis clinic. >> please keep your fingers out of our vaginas. [cheers] does thearenthood also sectaries. those men are able to come in with no hassle, no problems, no concerns, and they get their vas ectomies with no hurdles to jump over and a woman comes in, raped by a whole motorcycle game, and you make her wait 72 hours to think about it. later in the broadcast, we will speak with laura kaplan, author of "the story of jane: the legendary underground feminist abortion service." newly y surfaced documents revel a sesenior repepublican stratett who spececialized in gerrymandering was secretly behind the trump administration's efforts to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. when the strategist, thomas hofeller, died last august, he left behind a computer hard drive full of his notes and records. hofeller's estranged daughter found among the documents a 2015 study that concluding that adding the citizenship question to the census "would be advantageous to republicans and non-hispanic whites and would clearly be a disadvantage to the democrats." census officials have estitimatd 6.5 million people will not respond to the census if the cititizenship question is adadd. this undercount could affect everything from the redrawing of congressional maps to the allocation of federal funding. in a court filing thursday, plaintiffs c challenging the citizenship question accuse two trump administration officials of falsely testifying under oath about the justice department's motivations for altering the census. the supreme court is set to rule within weeks on whether commerce secretary wilbur ross s had the authorority to add the citizensp question to the census. in northwestern syria, a russian-backed offensive by syria's military on the last rebel-held province of idlib has intensified in recent days, prompting hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee toward turkey, where officials have sealed border crossings, leaving refugees to fend for themselves inin squalid camps as fighghting rages nearby. the u.n. said thursday more than a quarter-million residents of idlib and neighboring hama province have been displaced by fighting in recent weeks, with reports of at least 160 civilian deaths. the union of medical care and relief organizations says the toll is even higher, with at least 229 9 civilians killed and over 700 wounded. north korea has reportedly executed its special envoy to the united states after president trump walked away from a summitit with north korean leader kim jong-un in february without a deal on denuclearization. a major south korean newspaper reports the envoy, kim hyok-chol, was shot to death by a firing squad in march. outsidevident airport pyongyang along with four ministry officials and a translator with central forced labor camp for committing a translation mistake. this comes as kim's sister is said to be lying low on her brother's orders in the wake of the summit's collapse. colombia's supreme court has ordered the release of jesus santrich, a senior guerilla commander-turned-elected-officia commander-turned-elected-officia commander-turned-elected-officia commander-turned-elected-officia commander-turned-elected-officia -- saying the former rebel could be sworn in as a congressman under terms of colombia's 2016 peace accord, which ended more than a half-century of civil war. the agreement grants limited amnesty to farc rebels who lay down arms and confess crimes, including immunity to extradition. santrich had been jailed at the request of the trump administration, which is seeking to try him for cocaine trafficking based on an indictment by federal prosecutors in new york. santrich's release was a rare rebuke o of the trump administration by the right-wing government of president ivan duque. honduran president juan orlando hernandez was targeted by the drug enforcement admdministratin in a large-scale drug trafficking and money laundering probobe that begegan in 2013. court documents filed by prosecutors in manhattan earlier this weeeek are part of an ongog case against h hernandez's brother, juan antonio "tony" hernandez, who was arrested in miami in november. he is awaiting trial. eight others werere also namednn the e court documents, including honduran security minister julian pacheco. president hernandedez is denying the charges. hernandez is a key u.s. ally in central amererica. the trump administration recognized his 2017 victorory in an election that was marred d by widespread allegations of fraud. meanwhile, protests are continuing in honduras against plans by president hernandez to privatize health care, pensions, and education. thousands of teachers, medical workers, and students flooded the streets of tegucigalpa again on thursday, closing the capital city's airport and drawing tear gas from police. >> i am here because people are suffering. because i have students who don't have anything to eat, who come to class hungry. amy: in brazil, hundreds of thousands of students took to the streets of rio de janiero, sao paolo, and other cities and towns nationwide thursday in a massive protest against plans by the far-right president jair bolsonaro to dramatically slash education spending. bolsonaro dismissed similar protests earlier this month, calling student demonstrators "imbeciles" and "useful idiots." in bangladesh, police have charged 16 people over the murder of nusrat jahan rafi, a 19-year-old woman who was burned to death at her school after she filed a sexual assault complaint against her headmaster. the case has brought renewed attention to the plight of sexual assault survivors in bangladesh and the impunity often granted to perpetrators of sexual violence. a police investigator said he'll recommend all 16 of those charged with rafi's murder face the death penalty. back in the united states, ramped up hisp attacks on special counsel robert mueller thursday, appearing to inadvertently admit russia helped get him elected in 2016. trump tweeted -- speaking to reporters on the white house lawn, trump later backtracked from the claims adding russia did not help me get elected. at the chicago board of trade, commodity prices for corn and soybeans have soared in recent days as severe weather is continuing to hamper the spring planting season. farmers across the central u.s. report f flooding and an unprecedented string of deadly tornadoes has left millions of acres of farmland impossible to sow. environmentalist bill mckibben tweeted -- "normally, at this point in season 90% of america's corn crop is in the ground. but thanks to endless rain, it's 58% this year. for soybeans, 29% planted instead of the usual 66%. a hotter planet equals more rain and more drought." on capitol hill, a lone republican lawmaker blocked a bill thursday to provide $19 billioion in disaster relief to u.s. states and territories hit by earthquakes as well as hurricanes, wildfires, and other natural disasters exacerbated by climate change. tennessee republican caucus member john rose denied unanimous consent to the bill, declaring it too expensive. it's the third time the bill was halted by republicans on procedural grounds. the bill is virtually y certaino pass next week when congress members return to washington. it came together after president trump dropped his demand that lawmakers attach $4.1 billion in border security funding to the legislation. new hampshire became the 21st state to outlaw the death penalty thursday, as lawmakers voted to override a veto by republican governor chris sununu. new hampshire hasn't carried out an execution in 80 years and has just one prisoner on death row. in washingtoton, the house committee on oversight and reform will hold a hearing on d.c. statehood next month. it's the first time in a quarter century that a house committee has taken up the issue. in a new "washington post" op-ed congressmember steny hoyer , declared his support for statehood, writing, "i was hesitant about d.c. statehood. now i believe it's the only path forward." in california, a military judge in san diego ordered navy seals special operations chief edward gallagher freed from custody thursday, citing prosecutorial misconduct in gallagher's murder trial for alleged war crimes. the judge ruled prosecutors exceeded their authority when they tried to plant computer code in emails in order to find the source of leaks about the case. the court has yet to rule on whether to remove prosecutors or to throw out the case entirely. gallagher is accused of shooting unarmed civilians in mosul, iraq, and killing a wounded captive isis teenage fighter by stabbing him with a knife then staging a re-enlistment ceremony over the dead teenager's body. president trump has signaled he's considering a presidential pardon for gallagher and other military m members convicted of war crimes. and harold wilson, who spent 17 years in prison, most of it on death row, for a crime he did not commit, died may 18 from complications from a strokoke. he was 61 years old. in 1989, harold wilson was convicted of a triple murder and sentenced to death by a pennsylvania jury. a decade later, wilson's death sentence was overturned due to ineffective counsel. however, his murder convictions were not reversed and he remained on death row for years. finally, in october of 2005, wilson won a new trial and was acquitted of all charges after dna evidence proved his innocence. speaking to democracy now! just after his exoneration, wilson said he was released with 65 cents and a bus token. >> it is like, you know, after 18 years, dealing with the injustice system, all of thehese -- t the physical, menental abu- i am p placed back in society wh nothing. the shelter a family. no means of livelihood. no means of support. no financial bank accounts. no credit card. no conversation whatsoever. amy: and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the united nations special rapporteur on torture is warning that wikileaks founder julian assange is suffering from the effects of psychological torture due to his ongoing detention and threats of possible extradition to the united states. the u.n. expert, nils melzer, also warned that assange would likely face a politicized show trial if he were to be extradited to the united states. melzer writes -- "in 20 years of work with victims of war, violence and political persecution, i have never seen a group of democratic states ganging up to deliberately isolate, demonize and abuse a single individual for such a long time." melzer spoke to reporters this morning in geneva. >> and our finding was that mr. asassange shows the symptomoms a person who is been exposed to psychological torture for prolonged period of time. what we're speaking about is severe stress and constant stress, chronic anxiety, sevevee psycychological trauma. the psychiatrists said his state of health is critical l and if u did not t get urgent relief, tht we would have to expecect a rapd deterioration of that state of health and possibly with irreparable harm. amy: julian assange is currently serving g a 50-week sentence for skipping bail in 2012 at london's belmarsh prison after he was forcibly removed from the ecuadorian embassy where he lived for seven years by british police last month. last week, the u.s. justice department announced it was charging assange with 17 counts of violating the espionage act for his role in publishing u.s. classified military and diplomatic documents exposing u.s. war crimes in iraq and afghanistan. the documents were leaked by u.s. army whistleblower chelsea manning. this is the first time a journalist or publisher has been charged under the world war i-era act. assange, who had already been charged on one count of hacking a government computer, now faces up to 170 additional years in prison under the new charges -- 10 years for each count of violating the espionage act. julian assange was due to appear by video link before a magistrates court on thursday, but failed to appear, reportedly due to health problems. assange's attorney jennifer robinson appeared on democracy now! and spoke about his deteriorating health. >> i am very concerned about the ongoing health issues that he has and whether he is getting adequate medical treatment in the british prison system. he is very isolated. i think the prospect of a very long extradition and potential extradition to the u.s. is a real concern. he is resolved to fight this. he refused to consent to extradition to the u.s. because he would not be extradited for doing journalism. fundamentalises questions of free speech, which is why he is resolved to absolutely fight these extradition. amy: we go to geneva, switzerland, where we are joined by nils melzer, the u.n. special rapporteur on torture. welcome to democracy now! why don't you begin by telling us the results of your report and describing your visit to see julian assange at the belmarsh prison in london. >> thank you, amy. inid visit mr. assange belmarsh prison on may 9 in the companyf twowo medical experts. my primary concerns are that i am extremely worried about his current state of health, which was alarming already when i visited him and seems to have deteriorated rapidly since then to the point where he is no longer even able to stand trial and participate in court hearings. thest say i'm appalled at sustained and concerted abuse this man has been exposed to at the heads of democratic states of the event of almost a decade and i am gravely concerned about the prospects of the possible extradition to the u.s., as i've indicated this morning in geneva. i worry that he would be exposed to a politicized show trial in violation of his human rights. amy: so talk about your role as u.n. special rapporteur on torture. what is the significance of the report you put out? who pays attention to it? is it legally binding in any way? rapportle is that of a erur. membert to all u.n. states about the complaints of torture and ill-treatment. i examine this case and i reported my concerns to the government which is now primarily the u.k. government, but also the ecuadorian, united states, and the swedish government's, which each have contributed in my assessment to ththe medical effects that we he observed now. >> christine assange, julian's mother, tweeted -- "the u.k. government is unlawfully slowly killing my son! they made him very ill by refusing him any access to life sustaining fresh air, exercise, sun/vitamin d or proper medical care for six years of illegal embassy detention. then against all medical advice threw him into a prison cell." she tagged the u.n. in her post. talk about your visit with him. talk about the time he was in the ecuadorian embassy in london. he was there for almost seven years, was not able to go outside because the british government said they would arrest him if he did. well, it is very important to say i went to the prison with two very experienced and specialized medical experts, experts that are specialized in examining and identifying and documenting symptoms of torture -- physical or psychological torture. we ran medical protocols, the is istanbulotocols, -- particles, to have an objective medical assessment. mr. assange showed all of the symptoms that are typical for persons that have been exposed to prolonged psychological torture. hasssessment is mr. assange been exposed to various forms of cruel and degrading treatment that camilla to have the same affect as psychological torture. because mr. assange has been confnfined to a veryy controlled environment for about seven years, with very little outside influence, it is possible to identify the causal relationship between the medical symptoms and the actual causes of the symptoms with a high degree of certainty. our conclusions are that, first of all, the concerted effort of various states to hand him over to the united states, which is the elephant in the room -- that is the one fear he has had since 2010 when he first published large amounts of compromising information about the united states -- and soon after that he was exposed to relentless campaign of judicial persecution, i would say, because it is an abuse of the to tryl system in order to extradite him to the e u.s. d for am to be prosecuted role of offenses, as we have now seen undnder the espionage act. i do believe mr. assange has a credible case and a credible fear that he would not get a fair trial in the united states and he would not be safe and protected from the types of detention and treatment that would violate the convention against torture. he has, in the same time -- at the sameme time from m 10 increasingly been n exposed to a public campaign or campaign of , vilification, anand intimidation ranging from insultste ridicule e and up to actually open calls for his assassination and murder, without the government -- the concerned governments interfering and trying to protect him from this type of unacceptable threats. dishf these almond elements have contributed to a andl of stress i anxiety that would be terrible for anyone. but in 2017, the last government that actually but it him refuge and protection turned against him and started to deliberately harass him in order to get him to leave the embassy and order to trigger health crisis that would justify his expulsion to a british hospital and therefore to british jurisdiction. all of these elements have resulted in a medical picture and symptoms that are tantatamot to what psychological torture would produce over aa prolonged period. amy: other british foreign minister jeremy hunt has responded to your report by saying "this is wrong. assange chose to hide in the embassy and was always free to leave and face justice. the u.n. special rapporteur should allow british courts to make their judgments without interference or inflammatory accusations." nils melzer, your response? actually have responded to him. with all do respect, sir, mr. assange was free to leave as someone who was sitting on a riverboat in a shark pool. i believe it is important to see the swedish prosecution, the ecuadorian authorities, and also the u.k. judicial authorities so far have not shown the impartiality and objectivity that is required under the rule of law. he has been expelled from the ecuadorian embassy without any due process of law, and we're talking about the formal lifting of the asylum status and suspension of his nationality citizenship -- which normally would not be done by a president with the unilateral decision, but a cocourt proceceeding where defendant or the concerned person would have a right to defend himself. the way the swedish prosecution has been conducted also shows that mr. assange was not given the opportunity to defend himself properly in public against allegations of sexual offense, while at the same time having to expose himself to extradition possibly to the u.s. he was not given the opportunity to do so. for 10 years, his reputation and credibility and his human dignity have been greatly affected by these allegations and the swedish prosecution deliberately prevented him from actually taking an official position against that. in the u.k. courts, we've seen a similar type of bias. the same day he was dragged out of the embassy after more than six years, hehe was pulled into the u.k. court and given reportedly less than 15 miminuts with hisis defenense lawyer to prepare a defense. then in a very short hearing, was convicted for bail violation . the judge even insulted him as bebeing a n narcissist who cannt get beyond himself. now as a lawyer having worked at court myself, i cannot imagine how a judge could come to such a conclusion when the defendant did not say anything else in that hearingng that "i plead not guilty." i believe we have to take a step back and look at these proceedings, how they have been conducted, and come to our own conclusions that these are fair. we also have to take a s step bk and look at the whole narrative of suspected rapists, scratchsts, hacker and the surface a little bit and see what is below their. when i was first approached by his defense team seeking intection for my mandate december last year, i was elected to do so, because i have also been affected by this prejudice that i've absorbed through all of these public -- narrativeses spread in the media over the years. only when i scratched the surface a little bit, i saw how little foundation there was to back this s up and how mucuch fabrication there is in this case. i encourage everybody to look below the surfacace in this cas. amy: nils memelzer, what julian assange would face in this country come in the united states, if you were extradited here? a country that has the death penalty. talk about the trial, what you see -- you have talked about the elephant in the room. i am g gravely concecerned. i am almost certain he would not get a fair trial a and a safe treatment in the united states. the public prejujudice, includig on the part of former and cucurrent officials in the unitd states, has been so predominant for several years now. that itit would be almost impossible to have a partial court hearing where he could actually be heard of his concerns. when we see the charges that have been added now recently under the espionage act, most of them really relate to activities that any investigative journalist is coconducting every day. it is reason for concern for press freedom around the world. states,h the united unfortunately, are also dealing with a country that in the lasat 20 years, has now shown to be consistent in enforcing the tradition of torture with its own officials. i can speak to a senate report that is that led to a single conviction. obviously, the collateral murder video has now led to any prosecutions come either. the only person that is being prosecuted here seems to be the one that actually exposed all of these crimes. this type of context, it is almost not conceivable that a person like mr. assange could ever be acquitted and could ever get a fairir court trial. amy: and any kind of guarantee that he would not risk the death penalty -- he would not receive the death penalty? >> i would expect united states to respect its own assurances, is one death penalty concern. on the other hand, if someone lifesentenced to basicallyly without parole or 170 or 180 years in prison, which would be equivalent to that, for having conducted investigative journalism, then that really would amount in itself to a cruel and unusual punishment. i woululd say that would be in violation of international law, movementthe eight the of the u.s. constitution. amy: finally, what are you calling for, nils melzer? first of all, the four countries i've killed two that i have written formal letters to, should recognize the way they handled this affair violated the convention against torture. that they have to stop in their tracks, they have to really investigate the circumstances that led to this situation, and then also, obviously, take measures for remedy. if mr. assange really has committed a criminal offense, obviously, he will have to respond for that. but then he is to be given the ,hance to develop a defense have sufficient contact with his lawyers, and receive the guarantee is human rights are really protected. he cannot be tried in an environment that is severely prejudiced and shown only biased against him. my personal recommendation would simply be to release him because he has already suffered enough. but as a lawyer, i can acknknowledge there may be e a formal requirement to conduct certain proceedings, but it is extremely important that his human rights are being respected,d, that there is an independent observation of how these trials are being conducted, and especially that his medical status health be stabilized and he is given sufficient time to recover, to regain strength to be able to faface whatever he has to face. amy: again, those four countries, the u.s., britain, ecuador, and sweden. on u.n. special rapporteur torture. thank you for being with us. human rights chair of the geneva academy of international humanitarian law and human rights. professor of international law at the university of glasgow, and the author of several books on international law. for our interviews with julian asassange, , to democracynow.o. when we come back, we look at the incredible history of the underground feminist abortion service jane, which operated in the years before roe v. wade made abortion legal across the country. we will speak with two of the former members of the jane collective. stay with us. ♪ [music break] amy: this is democracy now!, i'm amy goodman. on thursday, louisiana became the fifth state to ban abortions after six-weeks when democratic governor john bel edwards signed the new measure into law. the law does not include exceptions for rape or incest. however, the ban will only go into effect if neighboring mississippi's abortion ban is upheld. a federal judge temporarily blocked the mississippi ban last week. in addition to louisiana and mississippi, kentucky, ohio, and georgia have also recently moved to outlaw abortions after six weeks, while missouri passed an eight-week abortion ban earlier this week. alabama has passed a near total ban on abortions. architects of the recent wave of draconian abortion bills say they're aimed at overturning roe v. wade, the landmark 1973 supreme court ruling that recognizes the constitutional right to an abortion. before the landmark roe v wade ruling in 1973, women in many paparts of the couountry who wee seeking abortions turned to, oftentimes dangerous, alternative solutions. in 1969, a group of women in chicago decided to take matters into their own hands, setting up a hotline offering counseling and providing abortion services under the moniker "jane." this is an excerpt of the 1996 documentary "jane: an abortion service," directed by kate kirtz and nell lundy. >> i went to a doctor who just treated me like dirt. he said, if you girls would keep your legs together, you would not have to be c cing in here. i remembeber saying to the doctor, after paying him all the money i h h come "whahat am i supposed to do?" "well, response was, yoyou've got to o go out t therd find t the father. he is going to have to marry you." it was really a time when if you needed an abortion for whatever reason, you took your life in yourur hanands. and you were terrified. absolutely terrified. all you knew was that you might die. that this person did not know what he was doing and he was going to take hundreds of dollars and you are going to bleed to death in some hotel roomom. > i thought my life was going to b be making sououffles and sesetting exquiuisite tables s d cooking wonderful gourmet food and just beieing a pererfect hos for whatever lifestyle we were going to h have. if somebebody had told me always going to get arrested foror ababoron and conspspiracy to commit abobortn 10 yearsrs ler, i would hahave said they were ot of their mind. >> in 1965 after i had returned for mississippi, a frienend of mine said that his sister was pregnant and was very frightened and was looking for a doctor to perfrform anan abortion. and while i had never really thought about the issue before and w was not sure what to do, either, i made some calls and contacts and located a physician who was willing to perform an abortion will stop >> abortion was illegal. the hospital and doctors wanted no part of the abortion and were not willing to even see you if they suspected an abortition. soso woman bleeding and possibiy dying could be said to weigh from a hospital.. >> everybobody i knenew, everybi talked to who o had become pregntnt and did n not want to have bababy and had triried to abort, had done something rereay painful or horrible, and they were all hysterical and desperatate -- just like i i wa. scared.al, desperate, scscared. >> several mononths later, wordf that had spread, and someone else contacted me. anand then s several months lat, word had spread agagain and somemeone else contacted me. i realized d there was a rereald out there. ii decided to set up a system fr talking with women who were trying to figure out what to d . and i set up what becamenonown as the service for jane. amy: that last voice, heather booth, from an excerpt of the 1996 documentary "jane: an abortion service," by kate kirtz and nell lundy. by the time roe v. wade was passed, the jane collective had performed an estimated 11,000 abortions. where joined by two former members, alice fox and laura kaplan. laura is the author of "the story of jane: the legendary underground feminist abortion service." welcome to democracy now! day after day, abortion bans are being passed around the country. it is not those that want these bans in place necessarily think lower courts will keep them in place, but they want one of these cases to get to the supreme court to overturn roe v wade. as you watch this, laura kaplan, taking place around the country, your thoughts and what it means to have been active around this issue before roe v. wadade existed? >> it is really horrifying. it is just this giant leap backwards in terms of the respect t for women and women's decisions. it is horrifying. i am just amazed every dayay. amy: talk about how you got involved with jane. >> well, it is great that alice is here because alice is the reason i got involved with jane. i had moved back to chicago. i had gone to school there and moved back to new york where i am from. i moved back to chicago in 1971. shortly thereafter, my dear friend from college alice found out she was pregnant. do you want her to tell her story? >> at that time, there was no me remaining pregnant. i was in a new relationship and abortion was already legal in new york, so i knew i had enough knowledge to know that was an option for me. it was clearly not a decision i had trouble making that i needed to have an abortion at that time. i was fresh out of college myself. not surengly, and i'm i remember my thinking around that time, he did not really occurred to me to come to nenew york. i really was in an independent state of mind and felt i could take care of my own life and saw pregnant?t, google call jane." immediately i felt confident and from that initial interaction over the telephone -- amy: what did you say? >> i think it was a message. the first one was, please leave your name and maybe the date of your last period. i don't remember what the actual information was that i left at that time. but i was called back pretty promptly. i don't recall being in a state of waiting very long. counselor.with the me all of the information about what would happen. i was in her home with her young children running around. i felt totally comfortable, confident, not frightened. i hear the stories of the worry and the fear of what lay ahead was some nightmare. i dodon't recall feelingng thatr a moment.. forlt very proud of myself taking care of myself. amy: what happened? what did she do in this home with her kids? >> she laid out to me exactly what would happen in the procedure, that i would be taken care of, that i would -- exactly all of the steps that would happen, that i would be driven be safece, that i would and taken care of, that someone would be by my side the whole time. shethat the procedure -- described the procedures of, which at that time was a d&c. i think i was taken with a group of women, saw was that by myself. there were a few women, maybe laura can correct me, but that is my memory, that there were a few people each time that the prprocedure was scheduleled. she described the procedure in detail. -- i, was an incredibly don't think i had ever been described a medical procedure before by someone saying this is exactly what is going to happen. i was prepared. amy: when we come back from break, we will hear the voices of women who, like you, went through this. this abortion service jane put in place so women would not have to go to backstreet alleys. but the people involved with this abortion service were not doctors themselves. we are talking to alice fox and laura kaplan, both members of the jane collective. laura kaplan wrote about this in her book "the story of jane: the legendary underground feminist abortion service." stay with us. ♪ [music break] amy: "the most beautiful garden" by oh, elis. this is democracy now!, i'm amy goodman. urging. those were the magic words that provided thousands of women access to safe abortions for ruling that v. wade guaranteed the constitutional right to abortion.n. with abortion servicices at lein women risked.s.s., their lives. a group in chicago decided to set up a hotline offering counseling and acts of providing abortion services under the name jane. this is heather booth who founded jane when she was a college student a u university f chicago. here she is in the 1996 documentary "jane: an abortion servrvice." >> in the early y years, it was mostly a atudent netwowork. first the university of chicicao anand then other chicago-based schools and that on to other campuses in the midwest. my recollection is that i was receiving some of these calls when those living in a dormitory and i told people who called to ask for jane so it was anonymous. amy: with time, activists with jane went from referring women for abortions to performing the abortions themselves. here's another clip from the documentary. >> first, it was a physical involvement. would drop them off and then one of my people would pick them up and blindfold them and take them to a building where the abortion would be done. then they would be dropped back off. >> a lot of guys who do abortions come onto the women and are abusive, eitheher on mol and ethical grounds -- which is kind of a daegis when you think about it. like, oh, you got yourself in trouble, you are a bad girl. that kind of thing. or the sexual approach. our guy, none of that. >> he came from -- i don't even think working-class. poorer the working class. >> diviversity said, only two of us at a time because of more than to meet him it is aa conspiracy. so first he and ruth go off and have their little chat and then they say, ok, ruth says, ok, you can go down now and i go off alone with him. we just tatalked money. i said, look, let's talk money. he said, thahat is what i want o talk about.. we struck a a deal rightht away. i said, come down on your priceless to be said, no, we're not coming down below $500. >> all of us women felt the fee $1000 was extraordinarily exploitative and made it impossible for a lot of people to get abortions needed them. thaten it became clearar this was not an especially difficult thing to do --- pressure was put o on him.. hehey, this looks like something we can do. thought it was, too. and that that was not such a a d idea. off,e blindfolds came prices were coming down, and those of us who had known him the longest rossa beginning to torn -- were also beginning learn. very quickly training others of us so i, who had come in in october of 1970, by the beginning of 1971, was one of the people who lit already begun to do long term abortions were we were the only staff. we d did not h have him, it wast us. >> we broke the waters and pushed out the water and then over a period of time, the fetus would die in the woman would miscarry. >> after i took the instrument in my hand, he said, here, feel what it feels like. here is the feeling you're looking for. i could d close my eyes s and i exactly,t feel it exactly the feeling. i thought, i can do this. and all of a sudden, this vista open up. >> also somewhere in that period , the group discovered -- i don't know of didiscovered is te right word. i'm notuite sure e what the righght verb is. it was knownwn suddenly that t e was not in md. and then mike was gone. >> he had already made enough money. the mafia had moved in on him. and he believed in what we were doing. amy: a clip from the documentary "jane: an abortion service" directed by kate kirtz and n nel lundy. still with us, alice fox and laura kaplan. laura kaplan has also written a book "the story of jane: the legendary underground feminist abortion service." this service when on for about four years until roe v. wade became the law of the land. talk about the bust of the women, the police moving in in chicago on this abortion service. again, abortions performed by women, not doctors, who were fearful that if women did not have something like this when abortion was illegal, that they could die from back alley aborortions. laura? specificallyo talk about the bust. the bust happened on a very lovely may day. and what we found out was that a sister-in-law of a woman scheduled had come -- we encouraged people to come with someone to the counseling counselor's home. this woman had brought her sister-in-law, who did not like what she heard so she went to her precinct. so the police followed the driver, as alice described, we have people gathered at a place called the front, which was a front. then in small groups, they were driven to another apartment or called the place, did thewhere we abortions. the police followed the driver a couple of times and then they barged in while we were working. they wanted to know where the man was, where the money was. of course, there wasn't much in the way of money. we charged $100. we probably got an average of $40. $40 or $50 per person. there was no man. it was just us. so they arrested everybody who was at the place. they then went to the front and arrested everybody there, so they had a police station for of -- because we have people bring whoever they wanted with them to wereront -- so there children and husbands and mothers and friends and quite a large group of people in the police station. amy: how many of you were charged? >> seven. amy: and you are charged with -- >> abortion and conspiracy to commit abortion. amy: facing? >> a lot of years. amy: final thoughts, alice. this case was dropped when roe v. wade became the law the land. >> in light of everything now, it is amazing to look like at that time and to see it was s st ofof part of a veryy active political time in all of our lives. amy: do you see women going back to this? >> it is hard to imagine that we would have to go back to this, but i also think having got into health care for many years that it was an incredible example. amy: we're going to leave it here for now and do part two and put it on web exclusives at democracynow.org. ,aura kaplan and alice fox members of jane. we will end today shshow with aa pipiece from storycorprps about. george tiller, the abortion provider assassinated 10 years ago today while attending church in wichita, kansas. these are the voices of rabbi david young and his wife natalie. >> i loved being pregnant. it was an amazing feeling. >> the ultrasound where we found out there was something wrong was supposed to be the last thing before going in and delivering a beaeautiful baby b. and the tech saiaid, uh-oh. i remember them saying it would be impossible for him to survive outside the womb. and he would likely be brain dead. global sources, having a third term abortion or having to wait the last month of pregnancy knowing we were going to have to give birth to a baby who could not livive. who would have -- it would have been torture. >> within a couple of days we were on aa plane to wichita. i remember arriving at dr. tiller's office and having all of these protesters outside. i felt like this s was the lastt ple e we wanted d to be. i remember as memeeting dr. tilr , who was so kind and so sorry that we were there. >> he kept reminding us that nobody wanted to be there. >> and that it wasn't our fault. which i kept kneading to hear. >> he made sure that we knew he had kids of his own and granandkids of his ownwn. >> that he wasas a man of fa ith. so to be able t to connect and that way i felt was comforting. >> i don't know if you know, every day when we got back to the hotel and you were sleeping, dr. tiller called me to check on you. while we both felt a sense of loss, i think we also felt a sense of gratitude that we could elijajahive show to -- to rest in p peace and notot hao struggle. amy: that was rabbi david young and his wife natalie for storycycorps, remembering drdr. geororge tiller. an abortion provider in wichita, kansas, who was assassinated 10 years ago today at church. it is produced by aisha turner. today our condolences to our dear colleague democracy now! [captioning made possible by democracy now!] carla wills on the passing of her older brother richard eugene wells, junior. that doesn't for our broadcast. thank you for joining us. [captioning made possi [drum beating] [children playing] sami yaffa: drugsgs, cartels, arbitrarary violelence. five decades of civil war, kidnappings, and people disappearing. when you get over the country's frightening reputation, you will find an uncommonly rich and unique musical culture bubbling under the surface. welcome to colombia. i'm sami yaffa, and i'm a rock

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