Artist Chi Nguyen Creating A Giant Quilt To Represent All The Women Affected By Texas Anti-Choice Bill
By Emma Cueto | Original article here
Ever since the 2013 Texas law HB2 went into effect, millions of women have lost access to abortion coverage in Texas. And now artist Chi Nguyen wants to illustrate that problem by creating a giant quilt representing all 5.4 million Texas women of reproductive age, demonstrating just how many women stand to be affected by the restrictions on abortion in Texas. The quilt, which could measure as much as 86 feet on each side, will then be brought to the Supreme Court rally organized by Center for Reproductive Rights on March 2nd.
Disguised as a measure to protect women’s health, HB2 requires clinics that perform abortions to meet hospital-like standards, which experts, including the American Medical Association, say is unnecessary for a relatively safe medical procedure like abortion. The bill’s true purpose was to force clinics to close once they were unable to afford the necessary upgrades. And indeed, since the bill went into effect, roughly half the women’s health clinics across the state have closed, which not only means that the clinics that remain must make women wait for appointments because of they can’t keep up with demand, but has also resulted in a measurable increase in women attempting to terminate pregnancies themselves.
The Supreme Court has blocked the law while they hear arguments on whether the law is constitutional, but if they uphold HB2, trying to get an abortion will be a nightmare for Texas women, not to mention trying to find a replacement for the other vital services that the shuttered clinics once offered.
And to illustrate just how many people will be impacted by the decision, Chi Nguyen decided to represent each of the 5.4 million women of reproductive age on a quilt.
“To me, it’s not a Texas issue but an all-of-us issue,” Nguyen, who was born in Vietnam, immigrated to the US as a child, and now lives in Brooklyn, told Vice in an interview. “The decision of this case will impact the state of reproductive and abortion care for decades across the country. It could be you, me, or the women we love who might have to face these hurdles when we need a safe and legal abortion. Texas is also where my niece is growing up. It scares me to think that she might have less control over her body than I did—than women in 1973 did before Roe v. Wade was decided.”
