Martha Boesing was 28 when she crossed state lines to get a “back-alley” illegal abortion. It was nearly 10 years before the U.S. Supreme Court recognized the right to abortion in the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade case.
Boesing wasn’t sure if the man who performed the procedure was a licensed doctor but had heard of him through friends — a common way women sought out abortions in the years before legalization. She didn’t have much choice when it came to picking someone to perform the procedure. Instead, she sacrificed safety and comfort for secrecy.
“I had no anesthetic — at one time, it was hurting so much I said, ‘Please, can you give me something?’ ” Boesing, 88, of Walnut Creek, recalled. “And he just looked at me and said, ‘You should have thought about that earlier, deary.’ ”
After the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson decision two years ago overturned an abortion right the court had set in 1973 with Roe v. Wade, Boesing helped create “Voices from the Silenced,” a play in which Bay Area women anonymously share — for the first time — their stories of illegal abortions.
“Voices from the Silenced” debuted in 2023 for a total of five performances, and a film version premiered earlier this year. On Monday’s second anniversary of Dobbs, Boesing and others involved in the “Voices” project shared their own illegal abortion stories for the first time in an interview.
It was Victoria Rue, 77, a neighbor of Boesing’s at Rossmore, a 55-and-older community in Walnut Creek, who got the “Voices” project rolling.
Like Boesing, Rue said her abortion a year before Roe v. Wade also was covert and painful. She was 25 when she went to a storefront on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood for a “menstrual extraction.” Rue said the man who performed the procedure was not a doctor and didn’t give her painkillers. Instead, she said he called his 12-year-old daughter into the room to hold her hand through the “excruciating” procedure.
After the Dobbs decision, she said she knew she had to do something to help the young women she feared now would be subject to the same ordeal she and Boesing went through more than 50 years ago. So Rue called Boesing and together they gathered more than 20 stories from other women living at Rossmore that would be featured in “Voices.”
Rue, a San Jose State University lecturer, has 40 years of experience writing and directing plays. Boesing has written over 40 plays, led workshops and directed shows for theaters throughout the country.
“It immediately brought up my own abortion, and I thought, ‘Oh my God … here we go again,’ ” Rue recalled. “I was furious.”
Split into several chapters, “Voices” highlights topics including religion, shame, poverty, protests, the Supreme Court and individual abortion stories. Seven women, supported by two musicians, represented the chapters. The group worked pro bono, and all of the proceeds from the show — approximately $7,000 — went to Planned Parenthood Northern California.
The film version was created by Luna Productions, directed …read more
Source:: The Mercury News – Entertainment
