About

The Turnaway Play is about what really happens when people are denied access to abortion.

An urgent issue comes to life onstage through humor, drama, and audience participation.

The play which has now been performed at Brown, Duke, and Ithaca is inspired and informed by the groundbreaking Turnaway Study conducted by Dr. Diana Greene-Foster, which followed 1,000 women of varying backgrounds over ten years. The study is the first definitive scientific study that shows—in factual data—the consequences women face when either having or being denied an abortion.

The play is written by Dr. Greene-Foster’s sister, playwright Lesley Greene. The characters are based on real study subjects and members of the research team. Through the words and experiences of these real people, abortion can be a conversation that normalizes, humanizes, and reduces the stigma many women experience when having to make this decision.

The Play has it all: humor, honesty, audience engagement making it accessible and engaging for everyone—and most important, it’s fun to perform!

We are making the play and tons of helpful supplemental material available FOR FREE to theaters, students and advocates across the country.

Join us and make a difference in your community and future generations. 

Everything you need to know to host a reading of the Turnaway Play in your community, school, theatre, or via social media!

We’ve created a free and easy-to-use guide that will work for any, and all levels of experience. The Turnaway Play can be performed through live table reads, open mic nights, theater, and beyond. We want to ensure you have the tools to discuss abortion with confidence. Please feel free to use some or all of it.

If you need support, don’t hesitate to   reach out to us.

The Team

Our team is passionate in the belief that performing readings and having candid discussions of the play can help in reframing the national conversation, increase storytelling, and reduce stigma associated with the topic of abortion. Hosting a reading of The Turnaway Play can engage local communities to:

  • ORGANIZE - people for change

  • EDUCATE - about the science

  • CREATE CONVERSATION - across groups; and

  • TAKE ACTION - invite audiences to get involved and take action.

Abortion will be on the ballot in several states in 2024. From attempts to criminalize and deny women the right to body autonomy, we aim to activate communities to vote to expand and protect reproductive rights through the play and the study.

  • Lesley is a theater artist and event producer. Her theater background includes work as a playwright, composer, sound designer, and director. She is co-director of Story House Ithaca, an organization that brings people together to share, study, create, and enjoy stories in all their forms. She co-founded and continues to be an organizer of Porchfest, a festival that began in Ithaca in 2007 and now takes place in more than 180 cities across North America. She worked for over twenty years at the Kitchen Theatre Company, working on dozens of productions in various capacities and helping to grow the organization. Lesley is the 2023-2024 winner of the Debra S. Newman ‘02 Cornell Tradition Community Service Award. Her play based on The Turnaway Study will have its world premiere at the Kitchen Theatre Company in May, 2024.

  • Diana is a professor at the University of California, San Francisco. She is a demographer who uses quantitative models and analyses to evaluate the effectiveness of family planning policies and the effect of unwanted pregnancy on people’s lives. She led the Turnaway Study, a nationwide longitudinal prospective study of the health and well-being of women who seek abortion including both women who do and do not receive the abortion. Dr. Foster’s work has demonstrated the effect of subsidized contraceptives and dispensing a one year supply of contraception in reducing the incidence of unintended pregnancy. She is the author of over 120 scientific papers as well as the 2020 Scribner book, The Turnaway Study: Ten Years, a Thousand Women and the Consequences of Having – or Being Denied – an Abortion. She did a TED talk in October 2023 that has been viewed over 400,000 times since its release in January 2024. She is currently collaborating with scientists on a Nepal Turnaway Study and with scientists from across the country on a study of the health, legal and economic consequences of the end of Roe. In 2021, she received the Harriet B. Presser Award for sustained research contributions to the study of gender and demography from the Population Association of America. She was named a 2023 MacArthur Foundation fellow and one of ten people who shaped science in 2022 by the journal Nature. Dr. Foster received her undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley, her MA and PhD in Demography and Public Policy from Princeton University.

  • Daniel is an Emmy-winning producer, writer and creative strategist. He is the originator and a producer of THE JANES, an HBO Original Documentary, which premiered at Sundance, was Oscar-shortlisted and went on to win 3 Emmys - Outstanding Social Issue, Best Director & Best Documentary. He is currently in production on a documentary series about the Seattle music scene of the 80’s & 90’s (a history of Grunge), directed by Oscar winners Daniel Lindsey & TJ Martin, under the umbrella of Imagine Entertainment and World Wide Pants. Previously, Daniel was a consulting producer on TNT’s AMERICAN RACE documentary series featuring Charles Barkley, the Netflix documentary Series AFFLICTED, and the documentary film God & Country, directed by Dan Partland and Produced by Rob Reiner.

    Prior to his producing career, Daniel was the co-founder and President of Exopolis, an award-winning marketing agency and creative studio; best known for their motion graphics and web design work, which included the network launch of NICKTOONS, brand campaigns for Microsoft’s Xbox, and the global launches of both the original iPhone and the iPod “colors” campaigns for Apple. Exopolis’ clients included: Universal Pictures, Disney, WB, Sony Pictures, Dreamworks, Sony Records, Universal Music Group, Nike, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Xbox, Delta Airlines, Formula 1, VH1, HBO, Cinemax, TCM, IFC, Sundance Channel, A&E and many others. Exopolis launched in 2001, grew to 40 people, and was acquired by Austin Ventures in 2010.

  • Annabel Sheinberg spent the last 15 years in the fight for reproductive rights and health in Utah - She served as the VP for External Affairs for Planned Parenthood Action Council of Utah and Planned Parenthood Association of Utah. Her areas of focus include sex education, advocacy, organizing and development. She has been engaged in community and youth development work for her entire career beginning in large urban settings and for the last 25 years in the Mountain West. Sheinberg received awards from PPFA for Community Education and Excellence in Diversity and Equity for an anti- bullying/anti harassment program that trained educators in Utah. She is deeply committed to developing the next generation of diverse, insightful, and impactful movement leaders.

Dr. Diana Greene-Foster and her research team at UCSF conducted the Turnaway Study from 2008 to 2018. In the study, they tracked 1,000 women who wanted to get an abortion. Of the 1,000 women in the study, three quarters were able to have abortions and one quarter were “turned away”. 

The study compared patients who received abortions with those who were turned away at similar points in their pregnancy. Study participants were interviewed every six months about their mental and physical health, education attainment, employment, economic situation, social support, and relationships. 

The main finding of The Turnaway Study is that women who are turned away from getting their abortions endure far more negative and damaging life consequences than those who are able to exercise bodily autonomy.

You can learn more about Dr. Foster and her role at Advancing New Standards for Reproductive Health (ANSIRH), watch her popular 2024 TED Talk, or read her book The Turnaway Study: Ten Years a Thousand Women and the Consequences of Having of Being Denied an Abortion.

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