Tag: conference

Conference talk: Contemporary Womxn’s Writing and the Medical Humanities, 31 July 2021, Institute of Modern Languages Research (IMLR), London, UK (online).

August 4, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Recently, I participated in a very diverse and intense three-day long conference about womxn’s writing and health humanities, put together by Rebecca Rosenberg (King’s College London) and Benjamin Dalton (Paris Nanterre University). While my own research obviously deals with abortion and sexual and reproductive rights in contemporary visual art, in this presentation I focused on art that employs language and narratives in conjunction with the visual.

The title was “Countering Abortion Stigma in Contemporary Art:  Activist Storytelling in Word and Image”, and you will find the abstract below.

For more information about the whole event, please visit its website.

Abstract: 

“Pregnancy termination is one of the most common medical procedures, yet abortion stigma persists in many countries. Along with the study of what exactly abortion stigma is, how it is produced, and what effects it generates, researchers and activists are trying to find ways to reduce or even to eradicate it. In this paper, I argue that contemporary visual arts are a critical means of challenging abortion stigma. Through a selection of case studies from the late 1980s to the present, I analyse ways in which contemporary artists have narrated and problematised this stigma in a range of socio-political contexts. My examples include Barbara Kruger’s Untitled (Your Body Is A Battleground), created for the Women’s March on Washington DC in 1989; collages made by Aleksandra Mir in 2005; Tracey Emin’s strategic use of narrative to counter stigma by speaking out about her own abortion in both her autobiography and graphic art; Holly Pester’s 2018 poem Comic Timing, a work that addresses abortion in a like-wise personal, but mundane manner; and the collection of comics titled Comics for Choice (2017) published a group of artists, activists, and writers based in the United States. These works and art projects use innovative combinations of imagery and text to communicate the complexities of abortion and to give voice to different individual experiences. They also function in different spatial contexts and address audiences in unique ways. By showing how artists have tackled the theme of abortion and abortion stigma through a variety of intersecting visual and linguistic narratives, I demonstrate the importance of contemporary arts to public discourses about health care and medical thought.”

Conference talk: Contemporary Issues in Fertility Control, 19 November 2019, Bournemouth University (UK).

June 16, 2020 / / 0 Comments

On 19 November 2019 I gave a presentation at the event Contemporary Issues in Fertility Control, organised by Bournemouth University (UK), entitled: “Countering Abortion Stigma Through Contemporary Visual Art: Responding to Legal Restrictions”.

The event wished to examine the social, ethical, medical, policy and regulatory issues associated with all forms of fertility control.  It also addressed the role of disruptive technology, the shift to ex ante responses to reproductive choice and wider intersectional/ equality concerns surrounding fertility control.  It brought together a range of interdisciplinary perspectives and stakeholders, including policy makers, parent groups, health providers, clinicians and a wide range of academics.  The aim of the day was to identify new issues, future challenges and possible solutions for policy makers.

Other speakers were: Clare Murphy (Bpas), Rianna Raymond-Williams (Shine ALOUD UK), Jeffrey Wale (Bournemouth University), Dr. Samuel Walker (Bournemouth University), Prof. Sam Rowlands (Bournemouth University), and Claire Horn (Birbeck, University of London).

 

Abstract:

National awareness campaign about abortion stigma (in relation to the 25th anniversary of the Belgian abortion law).

January 23, 2015 / / 2 Comments



The last months, I have been coordinating a project that perfectly combines my work in the arts with my interest and activism in sexual and reproductive rights. It is a national awareness campaign about abortion stigma, in relation to the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Belgian law concerning pregnancy termination in 2015.

The actualization of this law came after a very long period of feminist activism, public debate and outrage, political procrastination, catholic obstruction and even a short but precarious constitutional crisis. Nowadays, Belgium has a solid system of easy access to safe abortion up to 12 weeks of pregnancy which is covered by health insurance. Moreover, it is one of the three countries with the lowest abortion rates worldwide. Still, the taboo persists.

On April 3 2015, LUNA and IPPF Europe, two associations in the field of abortion care and sexual and reproductive rights, jointly organize an international conference about abortion stigma in Brussels, in relation to the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Belgian abortion law.

The primary aim of the conference is to introduce and discuss the issue of abortion stigma on several levels; the topic will be enclosed and highlighted from the perspective of women who had an abortion as well as from professionals working in abortion care. Furthermore, the prevalence and mechanisms of abortion stigma in different regional parts of the world will be discussed. Lastly, abortion stigma in Belgium will be tackled in relation to the 25-year old legislation, and a resolution with points for the (near) future in regard to abortion care will be presented to Minister of Health Maggie De Block. Thus, a current state of affairs in research and in practice will be given, which can be of interest for professionals, academics and activists as well as for people who are simply interested in this topic.

Speakers at the conference are dr. Anne Verougstraete, MD (Sjerp-Dilemma, VUB, Erasmus Hospital Brussels; chair woman), Vicky Claeys (IPPF Europe), prof. Piet Bracke (Dep. Sociology, UGent, Ghent), dr. Anu Kumar, PhD, MPH (Executive Vice President IPAS), Krystyna Kacpura (Executive Director Polish Federation for Women and Family Planning, ASTRA Network), Jon O’Brien (President Catholics for Choice) and Ann Furedi (Chief Executive BPAS).

Now, the campaign I came up with and organized for LUNA and IPPF, was inspired by the action “No More Names”, set up in 2012 by the English organization BPAS (British Pregnancy Advisory Service). Here, photos of various women were combined with the slogan “How do you call a woman who’s had an abortion ? Mother. Daughter. Sister. Friend. Abortion: no more names ” (more info can be found on abortionrights.org.uk/no-more-names-bpas-ad-campaign-aims-to-destigmatise-abortion).

For our version we have retained the basic idea of the BPAS campaign. However, we did not work with professional models but instead launched a call to Belgian women who had an abortion and who agree to be photographed. This call coincided with the Global Day of Action for Access to Safe and Legal Abortion (Sept. 28th) and was immediately picked up by all important news outlets in Belgium. All portraits were taken by Belgian art photographer Charlotte Lybeer and a team of five young colleagues: Ulla Deventer, Eva Donckers, Vesna Faassen, Ingrid Leonard and Valentina Stellino. I am extremely grateful to these people for all their efforts and their commitment and I am stunned by the beauty and diversity of all the portraits.

At this moment, photographer and graphic designer Charlotte Boeyden is compiling the photos into an image, which will be combined with the slogan “25 years abortion law in Belgium – For your sister, your friend, your daughter, your colleagues, your mother“. This image will be distributed to the press and used for all activities around the conference organized in 2015.

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