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As the #youknowme movement takes off, I'm reminded of my project that I created with Jennifer Baumgardner more than ten years ago, about women activists who had abortions. This photo series is still relevant today as many find abortion a taboo subject, and won't talk about their experiences.

I wanted the series to be straightforward so that the simplicity of the women's portraits would standout. This is not a faceless issue. I wanted the viewer to see these women's incredible stories behind the t-shirt. Among the portraits is one of my own mother. The goal is to spark discussion and debate, and not just between people that already hold similar views. This is an issue that is a part of us all. And by speaking up, and telling our stories, we make abortion a less confrontational topic in American society.

Please share your stories and let's start talking.

More info: vignette.global

#1

Florence Rice

Florence Rice

Florence Rice, 86 (at the time the photo was taken), was raised in the foster care system in NYC. She saw her mother only a handful of times throughout her childhood. When she got pregnant as a young single woman in the 1930’s she decided to have the baby. A few years later as a working single mother, she found herself pregnant again and knew that she didn’t want to be like her mother, unable to take care of the child, so she had an abortion. She got a serious infection afterwards from her illegal, unclean abortion. In 1969 when feminists began speaking out about their abortions, Florence was one of the first to do so. Her story underscored a class divide: richer women got safer abortions, poorer women were more likely to end up at a butcher.

Tara Todras-Whitehill Report

#2

Liberty Aldrich And Joe Saunders

Liberty Aldrich And Joe Saunders

Liberty Aldrich and Joe Saunders with their sons. Liberty and Joe had an abortion together early in their relationship, stayed together and eventually had two sons when their lives were better equipped to have children.

Tara Todras-Whitehill Report

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mintyminameow avatar
Mewton’s Third Paw
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Makes perfect sense. Not every abortion is a scary story about an abusive relationship or strict family or medical emergency. Sometimes you’re just not ready, and will get to it later.

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#3

Jenny Egan

Jenny Egan

Jenny Egan, 25 (at the time the photo was taken), was raised in a rural Oregan town in a Morman family. When she was 16 she got pregnant by her boyfriend from sex that was not totally consensual. After the abortion, which she had without telling her family, her parents received a letter from a group called the Brotherhood informing them of her procedure. Her mother was horrified and ordered her to leave the house.

Tara Todras-Whitehill Report

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#4

Sebastiana Correa

Sebastiana Correa

Sebastiana Correa, 28 (at the time the photo was taken), got pregnant as a foreign exchange grad student in Connecticut. Signficantly Sebasitan’s mother is an ardent pro-life activist who runs an orphanage for the children of unwed mothers in Brazil. As scared as Sebastiana was, her first thought when she found out she was pregnant, was “thank God I’m in America where I can have a legal abortion”.

Tara Todras-Whitehill Report

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Mewton’s Third Paw
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I like how they don’t give an excuse or reason. She just wanted one so she got one. Even this highly educated woman who is clearly smart still wanted an abortion.

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#5

Holly Fritz

Holly Fritz

Holly Fritz, 35 (at the time the photo was taken), got pregnant living at home as a high school student in Buffalo, NY. She just assumed that she should get married to her boyfriend and embark on a life not unlike her mother’s who also had gotten pregnant by her high school sweetheart, got married, and had Holly. When Holly turned to her mother for advice, she was surprised that her mother urged her to have an abortion, rather than a shotgun wedding. Holly is now a high school teacher in NYC, married, and is the mother of a toddler, Zoe, pictured in the photograph with her.

Tara Todras-Whitehill Report

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Lucy Shupe
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Faced with a similar situation, I got pregnant at 18, got married to the father of my daughter. Luckily we broke the mold and will be married 44 years in August. We also had three other kids. My oldest daughter an accomplished woman, got pregnant her sophomore year in college. I was distraught, totally devastated, I had prayed she wouldn’t be a teen mom like me. We discussed abortion something that was unavailable to me. She said no mom I can do it. She did today that child is a 21 year old pain in his grandma’s butt😂. My daughter has two degrees and teaches school. She teaches government and political science. The debate today on both sides ignores real families, with real situations. It’s just so maddening that we seem to be a nation taking huge step backwards. We all need to talk but unfortunately this is such a volatile problem that I’m truly afraid it’s never going to be settled.

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Berlinda Dunbar-Nye
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Thank you. I turned 12 and had my 1st period in 1973. Having a choice was never a personal issue for me. I was 16 when I was date raped and became pregnant the summer before my senior year. By the time I "had" to acknowledge it was all real, the only abortion available by then was saline. After making myself well informed with the information I got from planned parenthood, I decided to continue with my pregnancy. The key here......I chose to have my son. He just turned 40 and retired a short while ago as a chief in the US Navy. He's a good man and I'm glad he's here. But, I got to decide that. I believe that helped me be a better mother and person. Nobody else was walking in my shoes during a life of a lot of struggle and such. I guarantee the pro-lifers never knocked on my door to offer a helping hand. In fact, our early years were under the Reagan times. No one has the right to judge such a decision that will affect your life and those you know and love forever.

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Karin Jansen
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Some of these comments are very rude and uneducated. It can be hard for teenagers asking for birth control. Shame towards parents / doctors / society that teaches "abstinence", not to mention growing up in a religious household. Yes, you shouldn't have unprotected sex, that goes without saying. But CHILDREN (she was still in high school) can make stupid decisions. Thank GOD for abortion.

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BusLady
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Adolescents are at a period in their lives when they have a strong sex drive. It's natural for them to have sex. So they need to know about birth control, and it should be available. Abstinence doesn't work for everyone.

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BusLady
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My sister had a shotgun wedding when she was 15. They had one more child and divorced a few years later. She is now on her 4th marriage. I wonder how different her life could have been.

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Gemma Lees
Community Member
4 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Kathleen: Having a pregnancy is at least very difficult and at worst life threatening. I almost died of severe post-eclampsia having my son and was in intensive care. I also lost a lot of blood and needed a transfusion and my c-section scar became seriously infected. Do you honestly believe that a woman should be forced to carry a baby with: tiredness, swelling, sickness, pain, discomfort, cravings, mood swings, stretch marks, incontinence, lots of time off work, the need to buy a whole new wardrobe and the possibility of serious injury caused by labour just to give the baby up for adoption? Do you even hear yourself think?

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KT Trondsen
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I will definitely be talking to my daughter about going on birth control when she is a teen. The bonus is regulated periods.

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Apollo
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

my grandmum had my mum when she was 17. she married my mum's father and they were together for around 15 years before they got divorced. my grandmum finished high school which was uncommon for girls who had teenage pregnancies at the time.

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Nia Loves Art
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

She was a teenager and had unprotected sex without thinking of the consequences. The brain is still developing at 16 so cut her some slack. I’m sure she wasn’t expecting to need an abortion.

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Kathleen Lorentz
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4 years ago

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I didn’t see the option of having the baby and giving it up for adoption

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Beth Arriaga
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There are lots of options. Adoption. Keeping the baby. Abortion. All valid. All should be available. All should be safe. All should be without judgement or opinion or intrusion of society. One woman. One body. One choice. Hers alone and no one else's business.

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Andrea Shuffield
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4 years ago

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Do they not teach using a condom or why wasn't she on the pill. She doesn't deserve to have a child just because now it's convenient for her life.

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Frankenfrog
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Shut your trap, Andrea. You're probably as stupid as you sound. Don't procreate.

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Ben Smith
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4 years ago

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Her mom should have taught her about birth control.

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Gdubbbbb
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Your mom should have taught you that nobody cares about your opinions.

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anarkzie
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4 years ago

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Cleary not an effective one judging by the picture.

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Andrea Vincent
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Are you even reading the words above the picture? It said she had one when she was a teenager. Now she is married and has a baby. Geez.

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#6

Barbara Ehrenreich

Barbara Ehrenreich

Barbara, 64 (at the time the photo was taken), has had two abortions and two children. She is a grandmother, best selling author and columinist. Her column “Owning Up To Abortion”, published last summer in the NY Times op-ed section was part of the idea that sparked my project. In the article, she writes: “Honesty begins at home, so I should acknowledge that I had two abortions during my all-too-fertile years…Choice can be easy, as it was in my case, or truly agonizing…But assuming the fetal position is not an appropriate response. Sartre called this “bad faith,” meaning something worse than duplicity: a fundamental denial of freedom and the responsibility that it entails. Time to take your thumbs out of your mouths, ladies, and speak up for your rights. The freedoms that we exercise but do not acknowledge are easily taken away.”

Tara Todras-Whitehill Report

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#7

Gloria Steinem

Gloria Steinem

Gloria Steinem, 71 (at the time the photo was taken), entered the feminist movement the day she covered Red Stockings abortion speak-out for New York magazine, and finally owned the abortion she had had several years earlier. She describes her abortion as the first time she acted in her own life, rather than let things happen to her. She had her abortion when she was 22. Gloria went on to found several pro-choice organizations, including Voters for Choice and Ms. Magazine and considers reproductive freedom to be the most significant contribution of the 2nd wave

Tara Todras-Whitehill Report

#8

A’yen Tran

A’yen Tran

A’yen Tran, 25 (at the time the photo was taken), was raised by a single mother in a progressive NYC household. During her teenage years she had a “radical” boyfriend who was emotionally and sexually abusive, and isolated A’yen from her community. She got pregnant, and began waking up to how bad her relationship was. She had a methotrexate abortion and a few days later spoke publicly about it at a Judson Church event emulating the 1969 speak-outs. Even though she is a self-identified abortion activist, she was surprised by how hard it was to talk in personal terms about abortion.

Tara Todras-Whitehill Report

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#9

Jennifer And Gillian

Jennifer And Gillian

Jennifer and Gillian –Jennifer, 35 (at the time the photo was taken), left, journalist and activist, has written about abortion for more than a decade. She was frustrated that all the reporting on the issue, including her own, devovled into a “debate” between pro-life and pro-choice forces. She felt that what was being lost were the voices and faces of people that had abortions. In 2003 she started making t-shirts, resource cards, and working on a film that put the spotlight back on the women. Gillian and Jennifer have been close friends since they lived together in Boluder, CO in 1992. Gillian, 36, had an abortion in 2000 with the man who was to later become her husband and with whom she now has a daughter. She is also a film maker, and Jennifer asked her to direct a film on women’s abortions stories from the campagin. They collaborated, and the result is “Speak out: I had an abortion” film.

Tara Todras-Whitehill Report

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D-m Keilman
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Dana that is an InfoWars video. And it was filmed in Austin. That's about as close to being an Onion video without being an actual Onion video.

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#10

Rosalyn Baxandall

Rosalyn Baxandall

Rosalyn Baxandall, 65 (at the time the photo was taken), had an abortion in the 1960s and then again when she thought she was in menopause. She was the first speaker at the famed Redstockings abortion speakout in 1969.

Tara Todras-Whitehill Report

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D-m Keilman
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Depending on what you consider abstinent, one can still get pregnant if ejaculation occurs even without penetration. Nothing is 100%.

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#12

Loretta Ross

Loretta Ross

Loretta Ross, 51 (at the time the photo was taken), is a major figure in the reproductive justice movement. She is the co-author of Undivided Rights and organized women of color for the 2004 March for Women’s Lives in Washington, D.C., an event that brought unprecedented support from communities of color. She got pregnant in high school and had the son, losing a scholarship to Radcliffe in the process. At a student at Howard University in 1970 she found herself pregnant again. In D.C., abortion was legal, but Loretta needed her mother’s signature in order to have the procedure. Her mother refused and Loretta ended up forging her signature and having a very late term abortion.

Tara Todras-Whitehill Report

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Christine Meadows
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Why add negative comments. If you dont like this story, move on. This is an awareness piece not something everyone can be judgemental on.

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#15

Dawn Martin

Dawn Martin

Tara Todras-Whitehill Report

#16

Roberta Todras

Roberta Todras

Tara Todras-Whitehill Report

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Beverly Ferrel
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

So glad Colin is here to mansplain everything to us women who don't know anything...

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#17

Amy Richards

Amy Richards

Tara Todras-Whitehill Report

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Brandy Flanagan
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It’s real easy to sit back and judge others. Just throw “Cause God said so” in there and somehow that just makes your point of view valid. That’s weak sauce.

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