Abortion, Art, and Climate Change
Play and creativity in problem solving
Our personal stories impact our health and healing. We see this across medicine, including abortion care. Did you talk openly about sex at home? Were you taught that abortion was shameful or normal? Did you grow up with a religion that condemned sex before marriage? These factors affect how we feel about our experiences. Art helps process the interplay between story and health - through writing, spoken word, music, visual presentation, or dance.
Last month, the USC Vision and Voices Art, Activism, and Reproductive Justice event reminded me of this interchange. Holly Willis led the workshop Radical Botanicals and taught us to make phytograms, a method of using plant chemistry to create photographs. Reproductive justice work can feel serious, blanketed with stigma and legislative fears, but this workshop provided an opportunity for play and connection.
Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, abortion doctor, activist, and founder of Aid Access also spoke at the event. She highlighted the need for art and innovation in this field, exemplified by campaigns employing sea ships, drones, and small robots (!) to deliver abortion pills across the world. And the call for play extends beyond reproductive health.
Abortions to Plant Art to … Renewable energy.
Later that day, I went to see my dear friends at Solarpunks, who use “the arts to serve as a vehicle for social change by eliminating fossil fuels in the entertainment and production industries.” They hosted an Ecothéque with All Purpose Sauce, bringing together up-cycled and vintage vendors, artisans, and conservatory groups like Tree People. Again, play and joy wove into efforts for an otherwise daunting cause. The day’s flow sparked reflections on how abortion relates to environmental activism.
Public health research examines how climate change affects reproductive health. Studies conducted between 2019 and 2021 by IPAS in Mozambique and Bangladesh highlighted findings on how climate change directly and indirectly affects contraceptive use, fertility intentions, pregnancy outcomes, vulnerability to sexual and gender-based violence, economic roles, and sexual health. But how does abortion access affect climate change?
People write about how capitalism and consumerism, products of patriarchy, drive climate change. To bring the scale to balance, we need both masculine and feminine energies and ideals shaping society. This equilibrium requires sovereignty. We must have autonomy to be sovereign, which includes access to abortion!
What if women rose again? Not in battle, but what if we could reclaim, somehow, that power and respect which women had lost? What if we could somehow dismantle this planet-destroying patriarchy, and recreate a world in which we lived in balance?
- Sharon Blackie, in If Women Rose Rooted
People flying or driving hours across state lines to access abortion objectively ups the carbon footprint. I saw this last weekend while learning at and working at an abortion clinic in Kansas, which touches several ban states. Some folks drive 10+ hours overnight for medication abortion. This may be a small toll compared to those flying private jets, but it is something. Unnecessarily restricting access to essential medical care burdens the environment.
Take Aways
None of this is news. We talk about it with my herbalism community, The School of the Sacred Wild, led by teacher Marysia Miernowska. Sharon Blackie writes about this need to balance the masculine and feminine for the sake of the planet in If Women Rose Rooted. I echo these ideas and share them here because they beautifully merged together on an otherwise average Saturday.
We need to keep playing together, creating art, loving, and thinking creatively to solve big challenges, from reproductive justice to planetary health. There are times that play feels impossible, when the grief or pain is too strong. But when it is accessible, we must play through our tallest obstacles.
Nourish
A cozy adaptogenic chai
Drink your daily tea. Immerse the boiling, the pouring, the steaming, the drinking.
Actual tea or not, have a ceremony for your peace.
Ceremony keeps you close to you, and stills your waters for the moments to come.
- Jaiya John, in Fragrance After Rain
This chai offers a touch of caffeine from the black tea for energy. Eleuthero supports the adrenal glands as an adaptogen with cognitive and immune modulating effects. The spices act as activators, which improve circulation and taste delicious. Rose for the heart. Calendula for the solar plexus.
Black tea steeped in hot water
Eleuthero powder
Cinnamon, Cardamom, Ginger powders, +/- Clove
Local, raw honey
Steamed milk or mylk
Add in extras like Rose hydrosol, or Calendula flowers below
Herb sources, in-store or delivery:
Wild Terra (Los Angeles)
Oshala Farms (Oregon)
Mountain Rose Herbs (Oregon)
Inspiring and inspired. Thank you for weaving these strands together.
So beautifully articulated. You tackle the delicate subjects with such grace and respect. Learning through play and sharing through community isn’t something to just to ponder but to put into practice. Thank you for being an example to follow 🌸