Creative Process

"Dear Congress, I'm Not a Uterus."

Depicting the shame that women are pushed to feel, “Dear Congress, I’m Not a Uterus” boldly displays a nameless woman facing the societal consequence of having an abortion. The ‘right to live’ movement, which has now been successful in regressing the right to choose in multiple states, has passively ignored the fact that they have a higher agenda for the embryo inside of a woman than for the woman’s life that already exists.They leave her nameless, faceless, and label her a murderer for making a decision based on her own life, which is represented in the static, black and white background and her lifeless face. Her hands, covering her face in shame, are coated in blood to suggest the mental absorption of being branded a killer.

A letter to accompany this piece:

Dear Congress,

I'm not a uterus, I'm a human being who just happens to have a uterus. I know you're busy while you're debating on whether or not I have the right to choose what to do with my body, but could you please try and see me as a whole person instead of just a procreating machine? Statistically, yes, I'm just one number on a list of the thousands of women who have visited the evil building housing Planned Parenthood, but I'm pretty confident we weren't all there for the same reason. And even if we were, does it really matter?

Congress, I guess I'm just having a really hard time wrapping my little female brain around why I have to depend on my male counterparts to decide what to do with my body. I mean, of course, they are all automatically more intelligent than I am, being that they are males in positions of power. I get that. What I don't get is how that corresponds with decisions regarding my specific person. How does a complete stranger know what is going to work best for me?

Congress, if I end up getting pregnant the next time I'm raped, are you planning on forcing me to relive that traumatic experience for the rest of my life? I only ask because statistically (and I know numbers are a big deal for you), my chances of getting sexually assaulted or raped are extremely high in this country. I suppose I'll also have to hope you believe me as well, considering you like to act after something has happened, rather than try and prevent it with more education.

Congress, what if I'm not raped or assaulted and I just don’t feel like I’m ready to bring another life into this world? What if I don’t want to end up a single mother? What if I don’t have the financial resources to take care of a baby that I didn’t plan for or necessarily want? Are you going to force me into having a baby anyways, even though that child may end up in poverty?

Congress, I know that you say that if I don’t want a child, I shouldn’t be acting in a way that could accidentally cause me to be pregnant. Maybe you’re right. Maybe I should have used better protection. But see, when you let states decide to teach abstinence only sex education, you failed me. You didn’t teach me about condoms or birth control. You didn’t teach me how to have safe sex. I tried to listen and keep my legs closed, but while you taught me abstinence you were also surrounding me with sex everywhere I went. To you, I’m just a uterus, but to society, I’m just a sex object. How was I supposed to be a balance of the two?

Congress, I’m the teenage girl who was raped by my older brother’s friend and now I’m three months pregnant and terrified of the rest of my life.. I’m the 27 year old who felt I needed to have sex with every guy I met to prove my worth as an American woman and got pregnant after a one night stand. I’m the religious young woman who wound up pregnant because I was only taught to be abstinent in youth group and I didn’t know how to use a condom. I’m the 24 year old girl who used a condom, but it broke and Plan B wasn’t available to me or my boyfriend. I’m the graduate student who is studying medicine to find a cure for cancer and having a baby will stop me. I’m the 40 year old mother of five young children and I can’t afford to have another child. I’m the woman who was raped while overseas in the military and now I’m facing a discharge if I can’t get an abortion, which means I can’t continue to fight for my country. I’m every person who has needed your help to fight for my rights as an American Citizen.

Congress, please remember I’m a person. Please remember the life YOU are ending when you don’t support the abortion laws you passed decades ago. I have a right to life, too.