A new one-woman play, One Body: Dispatches from Idaho, brings the harrowing impact of abortion bans to life—amplifying rural voices and reclaiming the narrative through art.
Behind every ban is a body. Within every body is a voice. Use yours.
Jen Jackson Quintano
On June 2, a new play—One Body: Dispatches from Idaho—brought the harrowing reality of Idaho’s abortion ban to the New York City stage.
Performed at Theater 555 in midtown Manhattan, the one-woman show (still in development, so one night only … for now) explores the devastating consequences of Idaho’s extreme abortion ban, drawing on over 30 interviews with women, doctors, lawmakers and activists.
Co-written by Jimmy Maize of the Tectonic Theater Project and Jen Jackson Quintano, founder and executive director of The Pro-Voice Project in Idaho, the play weaves together stories of “pain, resilience and hope.”
“One Body changes the conversation around reproductive rights because it does what headlines and legislation can’t: It humanizes the fight,” said Quintano. “In a climate where policy debates erase people, One Body centers real stories—full of pain, power and complexity. It reminds us that behind every ban is a body. And within every body, a voice.”
Quintano—a six-foot tall “lumberjill” from the town of Sandpoint in northern Idaho—is often called the “lone abortion activist in North Idaho.” She founded The Pro-Voice Project to break the silence around abortion. Since Dobbs, she has been collecting the stories of Idahoans and sharing them at gatherings across the state, including in small conservative towns.
“Jen [Jackson Quintano] is making a huge difference,” said Wendy Heipt, senior reproductive rights counsel for Legal Voice, which advocates for justice and gender liberation across the Northwest. “She has sold out shows every single place she goes because people need that outlet. They don’t agree with what’s going on. People want their wives and sisters and friends to actually live through pregnancy. They want them to have the choice. What she’s doing is giving hope to people. Letting people know they’re not alone. That other people feel this way.”
The throughline of One Body is Quintano’s own story, interwoven with the heartwrenching stories of pregnant women denied care, doctors trying to treat their patients in a hostile legal environment and politicians wrestling with the consequences of the very bans they supported.
Director Maridee Slater described the production as “one performer channeling many voices—bodies, lives and truths—offering a raw, human counterpoint to a dehumanizing political reality.”
People want their wives and sisters and friends to actually live through pregnancy. They want them to have the choice. What she’s doing is giving hope to people.
Wendy Heipt, senior reproductive rights counsel for Legal Voice
One of the stories told in the performance was that of Jillaine St. Michel. When a fetal scan revealed complications with her pregnancy and her doctors told her their hands were tied, she had to travel out of state for abortion care. “What we did wasn’t wrong, but it was illegal [in Idaho],” said St. Michel.
Another woman needing an abortion said, “My doctor cried when she said she couldn’t help me.”
Another patient forced to drive seven hours through a snowstorm to access out-of-state abortion care described how, during the journey, she was shaking and her legs were numb.
The play also included stories of healthcare providers.
Dr. Amelia Huntsberger, a North Idaho OB-GYN, lamented, “This state is making me practice bad medicine.” She described physically feeling ill when she could not provide necessary medical care to her patients. Huntsberger eventually left the state, part of a mass exodus of OB-GYNs from Idaho—nearly one quarter in the first 14 months, and more since then.
“Idaho is the canary in the [coal] mine,” said Huntsberger.
“I was trained to care for people,” said another OB-GYN, “but the state tells me you not to care for people.”
As one legal advocate noted, “These bans start at the margins—minors, low-income women—and then they expand.” One Body makes that creeping strategy visceral.
The show was performed by Broadway actor Kellie Overbey, executive director of A is For, which promotes art and artists dedicated to advancing reproductive rights and ending stigma against abortion care.
“I didn’t want to do impressions of anyone,” Overbey said after the show. “I just start with myself and imagine that this is true for me. You can’t argue with someone’s personal story—because it’s theirs.”
For Idaho OB-GYN Caitlin Gustafson, whose patients’ experiences informed much of the production, the trauma portrayed onstage is ongoing. “These harms are happening every day,” she said. “It’s physical, emotional, financial. And it’s hard to sit there and realize, it’s been three years since doctors started leaving, and we still have so far to go. The stories in the play are not past tense. They are present reality.”
Audience members were visibly moved.
“I checked this out not really knowing what I was coming to see,” said Dana Rossi, a New Yorker who attended the show. “I feel like I want to do so much, but I don’t know where to start or what to do—I feel overwhelmed.”
Another audience member added, “This play is a lifeline. It reminds us that being overwhelmed isn’t the end point. It’s the beginning.”
It’s really, truly stunning how this one person in Idaho made a decision to do this—and here we are … People are changed by this. Art is resistance.
Amanda Duarte
Host Amanda Duarte reflected on how the performance disrupts abortion stigma: “We have all been farmed into these isolated shame capsules. We all feel so alone, so bad about ourselves and so unforgiving of ourselves and of others.”
The play dissolves that isolation, said Duarte. “It’s really, truly stunning how this one person in Idaho made a decision to do this—and here we are tonight. People are changed by this. Art is resistance. And this room tonight is full of it.”
Director Maridee Slater said she hopes the play will “awaken the empathy that fuels real, lasting change.”
Co-writer Jimmy Maize agreed:
“We have things in our brains called mirror neurons. When we listen to stories, there are parts of our brain that light up as if we are experiencing the same thing that we’re listening to. I think there’s a certain space, a certain kind of storytelling, a certain kind of presence, that actually is experience. So even if it hasn’t happened to you, I think that can be almost as powerful as having had the experience yourself. That’s the kind of space I think Jen is cultivating. We’re not letting the laws achieve what they were trying to do—shame us, stigmatize us, silence us. If anything, this movement is louder than ever.”
Organizers hope to spark momentum—and raise funds—for a nationwide tour and an off‑Broadway production of One Body in the future.
“With One Body, we’re not just telling stories; we’re building infrastructure for change,” said Quintano. “By placing rural Idahoans’ experiences front and center—elevating stories too often silenced—we not only humanize the stakes of reproductive rights, we create a blueprint for community-centered activism that can travel anywhere.”
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