“Health care”
acrylic on collage of recycled materials on unmounted canvas panel
72”x36”
Currently NFS
A mom hugs her child. They are all smiles and seem to enjoy their time together at the pool. Beside the child's feet is an open pink purse, from which emerges a pack of birth control pills, condoms, and a tube of lipstick. The woman sits at the edge of the pool, her half-submerged legs surrounded by sperm swimming energetically in her direction. In the center of her bathing suit we can see a woman in a blue dress with a red scarf over her hair, an abortion scene from the series Illegal Abortions by Paula Rego. “The series was born from my indignation… It is unbelievable that women who have an abortion should be considered criminals. It reminds me of the past… I cannot abide the idea of blame in relation to this act. What each woman suffers from having to do is enough.” Paula Rego, passed away on June 8, 2022, at the age of 87. Sixteen days after her passing, the US Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade abolishing the federal right to abortion in the US. The United States joins just three other nations that have reduced access to abortion since 1994, Poland, El Salvador and Nicaragua. Nearly 60 countries have loosened their restrictions on abortion in the past 25 years. But the US decision shows how fragile this right is while abortion is, in fact, a crucial aspect of women's healthcare. The WHO estimates that complications from unsafe abortions account for 5 to 13 percent of maternal fatalities globally, the great majority of which take place in underdeveloped nations. On the child’s bathing suit is a detail of the artwork by William N. Copley: in white letters over a black background is the word “THINK.” This print was made in the turbulent 1960s, a time of political and racial unrest with the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement. In the 60’s, women were also pushing for changes. They could only obtain a credit card with their husband's co-signature, the same was true for the newly available birth control, and marital rape wasn’t considered illegal. In 1969, a group of women created “Jane: an Abortion Counseling Service of Women’s Liberation” an underground abortion network to help and support women who needed to go through this ordeal. Between the late 1960s and 1973, the year that the Supreme Court rendered its decision in Roe v. Wade, “Jane” had arranged or carried out more than 11,000 abortions. Today, as banning abortion never leads to fewer abortions, only to more unsafe abortions, and in reaction to the American decision, some countries like France are making sure this right cannot be taken away. They are also enacting reforms to extend the time limits, recognizing that rigid time limits can have harmful impact, create pressure and further complications for women who seek abortion care.
Bathing suit: Paula Rego, Illegal Abortions, 1998; (details)
William N. Copley, Untitled (Think/flag), 1967 (details)