Pro-choice campaigners Shout Your Abortion make the visual statement during the Women’s March
Following the third annual Women's March, which took place on Saturday (January 19), abortion rights group Shout Your Abortion shone messages of protest reading “Fuck Your Wall” and “Abortion is Freedom” onto Trump Tower and another building in Union Square, New York City.
The statistics “71 per cent of Americans support Roe” and “1 in 4 women has an abortion” were also projected onto the structures. Despite these hard facts, access to abortion services has been challenged in recent years, and Roe V. Wade is in legitimate danger. A statement on Shout Your Abortion's website reads: “This disconnect between public opinion and policy is a direct result of the prevailing expectation that those who have abortions remain silent, and this silence has allowed the anti-choice movement to dominate the conversation, unchallenged.”
The projections are reminiscent of works by the feminist and activist Jenny Holzer. The famous text artist rose to prominence in the 70s using LED signage to share political messages such as “PROTECT ME FROM WHAT I WANT” and “PRIVATE PROPERTY CREATED CRIME” onto skyscrapers in NYC.
The fight for abortion rights in America has been heating up with increasing pressure from anti-choice senators and organisations. The annual anti-abortion event March for Life, which took place in Washington, D.C on Friday (January 18), included a video message from President Trump and an address by Vice President Mike Pence which praised Trump as the “most pro-life president in American history”. The timing of these events is crucial, as January 22 marks the 46th anniversary of Roe V. Wade.
Shout Your Abortion began as a social media campaign in 2015 which aimed to remove the stigma around abortion, in the face of attempts by the US Congress to defund Planned Parenthood. The hashtag #ShoutYourAbortion became a viral way to share abortion stories and placed real human experiences at the centre of America's abortion date for the first time. The organisation has since grown into a grassroots movement that encourages people to share their abortion stories through art, media and community events, connecting people across America.
The push for free, safe, legal abortion rights is ongoing around the world. Last week, the Isle of Man became the first place on the British Isles to decriminalise abortion, after a monumental bill on abortion received Royal Assent to be signed into law (January 15). In 2018, the Republic of Ireland overturned its abortion ban with a landslide vote, while activists in Northern Ireland are pushing for full decriminalisation, as abortion remains illegal in most cases.
In July last year, Dazed partnered with New York activist group Illuminator for #AddressTheNation, taking issues that matter most to our readers and projecting them into the skyline of London – on structures including the Houses of Parliament, the Ministry of Justice, The Royal Courts of Justice, and Nelson’s Column. We addressed everything from Theresa May’s crumbling Brexit plans to street-level abuse of trans people at London Pride.
