We Won't Go Back
With the recent overturning of Roe vs Wade, I felt inspired to create this poster series as a small personal project for myself in order to express my own thoughts and feelings. I remember hearing the news that day over the radio while driving home in the car with my wife. After a long period of silence between us, the only thing I could say was that so many women are going to die.
Hundreds of thousands of women opt to get an abortion in this country every year. And that’s just what’s been recorded. There are 600,000 abortions each year, on average, in the U.S., according to the CDC. The Guttmacher Institute, an abortion rights group, puts that number even higher, at almost 900,000. Facts are very important, especially when discussing the health of women and the American public. The fact is abortion is an essential component of women’s health care.
Deliverables
Poster Series
Social Campaign
Personal Project
Where abortion is illegal or highly restricted, women resort to unsafe means to end unwanted pregnancies, including self-inflicted abdominal and bodily trauma, ingestion of dangerous chemicals, self-medication with a variety of drugs, and reliance on unqualified abortion providers. Today, approximately 21 million women around the world obtain unsafe, illegal abortions each year, and complications from these unsafe procedures account for approximately 13% of all maternal deaths, nearly 50,000 annually.
My wife and I have three beautiful children. However, that would not be without access to abortion. [With] an ectopic pregnancy, it was devastating that we had to choose one life over another. But we did … and to our surprise the doctor recommended continuing to try. After the elective abortion, we had two more healthy babies.
— Jamie Doherty / Torrington, Conn.
I have never needed an abortion but had friends who almost died from botched abortions. I never worried that my daughter would have to risk her life if she needed an abortion. Nor did I worry that my son might be indirectly responsible for a woman’s death. Now I am concerned for both of them.
— Marigene Arnold / Kalamazoo, Mich.
The abortion I had was significant because it wasn’t. It didn’t disrupt my life. It didn’t financially devastate me. I was surrounded by support. I had the right to choose, and the accessibility afforded by a liberal state.
— Margaret Gilkerson / New Haven, Conn.