Martha Boesing, all of Walnut Creek, from left, Jean Wilcox and Victoria Rue are photographed in Walnut Creek, Calif., on Monday, June 24, 2024. Boesing, Wilcox and Rue are featured in a new Berkeley play/film, which dives into the obstacles and risks they faced before women’s reproductive rights were protected. The movie is titled “Voices from the Silenced: Pre-Roe Abortion Stories”. Martha Boesing was 28 when she crossed state lines to get a “back-alley” illegal abortion.
“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. 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.
“We have to amplify that history because we believe that not enough people understand history,” said Eileen Barrett, president-elect of The American Medical Women’s Association. “When people don’t understand history, they’re doomed to repeat it.” Beyond the banning of abortions in several states, Barrett said that the confusion and fear around access to reproductive care and abortions in the U.S. has endangered women’s lives.Now an abortion rights advocate, woman raped by stepfather as a child will campaign with first lady