$125.00

2023
11 x 14 inches
archival inkjet print
printed on cold press Canson 140 lb archival paper
signed and dated

Unplanned Parenthood: Letters to an Army of Millions, is a mixed media installation about the history of birth control and the role racism played in the fight for reproductive justice in the United States. In 1928, Margaret Sanger published a book called Motherhood in Bondage, a selection of the 250,000 vulnerable and desperate letters the Planned Parenthood founder received in the 1920s asking for advice about birth control and contraception at a time when any information about such reproductive healthcare was deemed “obscene,” and disseminating it was punishable by law. Some wrote that they would rather die than be pregnant again. Many were living in extreme poverty and could not feed or clothe the children they already had.  Some women had abusive husbands, or were dealing with serious health issues, suffered multiple miscarriages and stillbirths, watched their children die of preventable diseases, and simply wanted to end the suffering. I am creating a mixed media installation centered on the stories of these people who longed for reproductive justice.

Select letters from the collection were hand-written by volunteers from across the country, and are currently being sewn onto fabric cut from vintage wedding dresses. Each piece of fabric will be dyed with dandelion—a flower that was picked for bouquets before it was deemed a weed—to remind us that things can change drastically, even in a lifetime. 

For years, Sanger’s support of white supremecy was rarely discussed by white people. For a period of time, Sanger supported eugenics, she had ties with white supremacists, moved the birth control pill trial testing to Puerto Rico, and supported Buck v Bell, the Supreme Court’s 1927 decision which allowed states to sterilize people they considered “unfit” without their knowledge or consent. The truth about Sanger’s legacy reminds us that the fight for equality has been won at the expense of black and brown bodies. These desperate pleas from the past are an important part of the United States’ history that gives us a crystal clear view of what’s ahead if the government continues to take away our rights to bodily autonomy.