On 8/23, I listened to The Daily Podcast on The Effort to Punish Women for Abortions. It featured a pastor with 5 children and a woman who had an abortion when she was young and subsequently started working at her church. She now calls herself a “sinner” and is a fervent anti-abortionist along with the pastor. Although I have a few friends who listen to opposing viewpoints with a degree of neutrality, I am not able to do so. I feel so incredibly angry at the injustice of severely punishing women especially as if getting pregnant is a solo act and as if a fetus is a viable entity. Isn’t this about fundamentalism and the intersection of staunch mis-guided religion, sexism, racism, and patriarchy to oppress and eliminate women’s rights to have authority over our own bodies? What ever happened to truly taking care of ourselves and not abdicating this authority? Make no mistake about it, women are highly complicit in allowing this male domination to persist and propagate!

In the background of this canvas piece is a transfer of a photo of far-right members of Congress, mostly male with a few women sprinkled in. Perhaps I’ll create another piece that includes our militant far-right supreme court justices.