“Around the nation in the summer of 1970, state legislatures made up of mostly white men were debating whether to legalize abortion at the state level. ‘There were no women’s voices or women’s stories; we were just not in those debates,’ says Mary Summers, senior fellow at the Fox Leadership Program and a political science lecturer. ‘It was pretty much all men, and they were voting against women having access to abortion.’ ...Reflecting on the 1970s, she says she is struck by the many people willing to challenge the law at the time, including women in the Jane Collective in Chicago who performed thousands of safe but illegal abortions, risking going to jail. ...It’s hard to keep unjust laws on the books if more and more people are breaking them, she says, pointing to segregation as an example. ‘This country fought a civil war in order to say your opportunities for liberty should not depend on where you live. The right to abortion is critical to liberty for women. This is one of the most intimate and most important decisions of your life. It’s a free speech issue, and it’s a personal liberty issue.’” The film can be viewed on its website: www.abortionandwomensrights1970.com -Kristin de Groot, Penn Today