As much as we’d like to think that we can come to a mutually satisfying agreement if we settle our social issues with open and honest debates, it’s also true that some issues can prove too polarizing to reach much of a compromise.
Although the public debate around abortion has been fought and re-fought in American politics for decades, we’ve largely seen pro-choice and pro-life become more entrenched in their sides of the debate because of the real consequences that can emerge when a policy on abortion is enacted.
But now that several states are adopting the harshest abortion laws seen since the case of Roe v. Wade was argued, that debate has taken on a new, more immediate context.
And that makes one photographer’s project more relevant than ever.
Tara Todras-Whitehill is a photojournalist who specializes in capturing circumstances of women’s lives and the missions they undertake throughout the world.
In her Instagram bio, she says she’s been traveling around the Middle East and parts of Africa over the last 10 years.
One of her projects — the “I Had an Abortion” photo series — began in 2005 as a way to build understanding that those who get abortions are people with reasons and complex feelings behind their decisions, rather than talking points.
As she told Buzzfeed News, “When you talk about abortion, there’s always very extreme sides and people don’t ever meet in the middle and they don’t talk about it. As a result, people just kind of scream at each other and they never really hear what the other side is saying.”
And so, she had the simple, but effective, idea to have women who sought abortions share their stories while wearing this T-shirt.
As Todras-Whitehill said, “There’s not an in-your-face aggressiveness to the project, rather a straight forward statement that these are women and these are their actual lives.”
“This is what helps people to really understand and empathize.”
“I think once you see yourself in someone else’s shoes, that’s when things start to change.”
And so, we meet some of the women she interviewed. These are their stories.
Back when she was 16, 35-year-old Holly Fritz became pregnant in Buffalo, New York.
She was impregnated by her high-school sweetheart, which had also happened to Fritz’s mother when she had her.
When she asked her mother for advice, she figured she’d be told to marry the father as that had happened prior to her birth. However, her mom advised her to get an abortion instead.
She now teaches high school in New York City and started a family that now includes her daughter Zoe, pictured above as a toddler.
Gloria Steinem, 71, had her abortion when she was 22, but speaking freely about it didn’t seem like an option until several years later.
As Buzzfeed news reported , she was awakened when she covered the 1969 Redstockings Abortion Speakout for New York Magazine .
This was her entry to the feminist movement and she went on to found organizations that support abortion rights such as Voters for Choice and Ms. Magazine.
Speaking on her own abortion, she said it was the first time she acted in her own life instead of just letting things happen to her.
86-year-old Florence Rice had her abortion back when they were first illegal.
She grew up in foster care in New York City and rarely saw her mother, but she also became a mother herself during the 1930s. A few years later, she became pregnant again.
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She was already working as single mom to support her first child and knew she couldn’t do the same for a second one. So, to avoid becoming like her mother, she sought an abortion.
Because she wasn’t rich enough for a safe facility, she ended up with a serious infection and has been speaking out since 1969 about the class divide that occurs when abortions are criminalized.
Gillian, 36, joined Todras-Whitehill’s project alongside her 35-year-old collaborator, Jennifer.
Gillian sought her abortion in 2000 with the man she would later marry by her side. She now has a daughter with this man and works as filmmaker.
At the behest of Jennifer, a journalist and activist who has written about abortion for more than a decade, she began directing a movie about women’s abortion stories.
51-year-old Loretta Ross walked a hard road to become a major advocate for abortion rights.
As she said at a global feminism conference, Ross was sexually assaulted by her cousin at age 14. This led her to become pregnant and that pregnancy cost her a scholarship at Radcliffe College.
Although she carried this baby to term, she sought an abortion when she became pregnant for a second time while studying at Howard University in 1970.
By then, abortion was legal in Washington D.C., but required a signature from her mother.
As Buzzfeed News reported , her mother refused to sign, so Ross forged her signature and received one.
She was instrumental in raising support from communities of color in the 2004 March for Women’s Lives in Washington, DC.
She helped coin the term “Reproductive Justice” back in the 90s that has aided in the rhetoric surrounding of reproductive politics in the U.S.
Liberty Aldrich and Joe Saunders made the decision to seek an abortion together.
This happened early in their relationship, but they stayed together and eventually attained the kind of security that allowed them to support the two sons they’ve had since.
