The Last Safe Abortion
Carmen Winant
Access to medical attention should be a right. In the case of abortion, it is complicated. However, it is not on me to dictate what a woman can or cannot do with their decisions. Women should not have to imperil themselves with unsafe abortions. The Last Safe Abortion by Carmen Winant is not so much about abortion but about abortion-care workers.
Artist Carmen Winant delves into the almost five-decade era, from 1973 to 2022, when abortion was a legal right in the United States. She shows the compassionate world of abortion workers. She does so through an exploration of personal, organizational, and intitutional photographic archives across the Midwest, taken between the 1960s and 90s. The Last Safe Abortion invites readers to view abortion care through a lens of empathy and is a testament of the individuals who have built communities of support and advocacy around this essential healthcare service.
Carmen Winant (born 1983 in San Francisco) is a United States writer and visual artist who explores representations of women through collage, mixed media and installation. She is known for recontextualizing archival imagery into assembled compositions that address themes of gender, reproduction and identity. Her work incorporates found images and personal photographs. She creates immersive installations and artist books that challenge conventional representation of the female body. On of her best-known projects is My Birth (2018).
The images in The Last Safe Abortion are humble, even banal. Winant wants to show us that abortion care is work and looks entirely regular. We see women at work: cotton gowns are washed and folded, patients are scheduled, medical equipment is sterilized, fundraisers are organized and attended, paper on exam tables is changed, blood is taken, pamphlets are distributed, office brithday parties are thrown, lunch is taken, nurses embrace, again and again.
By focusing on the day-to-day, Winant aims to dismantle the narratives weaponized by anti-choice activists. Offering a new visual narrative that honors the care inherent in abortion services. Interspersed between these scenes are images that have a greater charge. Despite the unspectacular photographs The Last Safe Abortion is a spectacular work.
The Last Safe Abortion
Photographer: Carmen Winant
Published in 2024 by SPBH Editions.
Spiral bound flexicover, 30,5 x 22 cm, 172 pages
Text by Carmen Winant
Winner of the 2024 Les Rencontres d’Arles Author Book Award.
Shortlisted for the 2024 Paris Photo – Aperture Photobook of the Year award