Keep Abortion Legal

 

Keep Abortion Legal

6" square, January 6, 2023, for Project Quilting: The First One challenge

hand embroidered; machine quilted

This small piece is my response to the prompt: The First One, at this time following the overturning of Roe V. Wade by the super conservative Supreme Court.   It's my acknowledgement of my FIRST abortion; yes, I've had more than one.   Abortion was not illegal at the time, and should not be illegal now.  Legal abortion recognizes a woman's right to bodily autonomy.  For too long, we've been shamed into keeping quiet about abortion, about menstruation, about all manner of female bodily functions. 

This small section of quilting shows where the small mass of growing cells may have been attached to the wall of my uterus. 

This image shows the two color embroidery technique I have been developing over the years, where I color block the background, then embroider a line drawing over this shape. 

Keep abortion legal to allow women full bodily autonomy.  The number of abortions I've had is nobody's business but my own.  I've also carried some pregnancies to term.  That number is also nobody's business. 

Here's a good essay by a woman who writes honestly and eloquently about having more than one abortion, she speaks to the societal stigma:  "I've had three abortions"  

Minding my own business, 

Peace, 

Paula