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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 Rossmoor, a 55-a.

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