Notes for the last safe abortion

The future of women’s rights over their bodies in the United States is not as clear as it seemed in 1973, when Roe v. Wade guaranteed federal right to an abortion up to foetal viability. With the overturning of this right in 2022, abortion has been banned, limited, or tested in 26 U.S. states and three territories—often without exemption for cases of rape, incest, or the life of the mother.

Reproductive rights are core values of feminism, and without them, there is no freedom. We are at a turning point in relation to these rights, and the future is far from certain.

Carmen Winant’s Notes for the last safe abortion reaches back over fifty years, drawing on a number of archives, as well as the artist’s own pictures as she works towards a photobook. These images look past the drama of the philosophical, religious or political aspects of the discussion around abortion, to recognise the daily labour it takes to keep clinics open.