An exhibit on display at the University of Michigan is celebrating the history of abortion, calling it a “life-sustaining act” while seeking to educate Americans on women’s desires to control pregnancy for the “good of ourselves.”
Titled “4,000 Years for Choice,” the exhibit praises abortion as a “life-sustaining act” and chronicles the history of women’s reproductive rights, The College Fix reported.
“‘4,000 Years for Choice’ is an exhibition of posters about the age-old practices of abortion and contraception as a means to reclaim reproductive freedom as a deeply personal and life-sustaining act existing throughout all of human history,” an excerpt describing the exhibit from the University of Michigan’s women’s studies’ website states.
“4,000 Years for Choice” is the product of Heather Ault, an abortion rights activist, who launched the project in 2009. According to the exhibit’s website, Ault sought to help Americans “fully understand women’s deeply ingrained desire to control pregnancies for the good of ourselves, our relationships, and our families.”
The exhibit will be featured at the Ann, Arbor, Mich., school until May 29 and includes an array of brightly colored posters with “empowering” phrases designed to “critique the feminist battle cry of ‘fight, struggle, and defend.'” Posters displayed at the University of Michigan include the words “united,” “trust,” “bless” and “love.”
Other posters feature abortifacient recipes, including one found in ancient Egyptian text. The recipe, numbered “Prescription Number 21” and titled “Recipe Not to Become Pregnant” calls for “crocodile feces, mixed with fermented dough and placed in the vagina.”
Another similar poster discusses Soranus, an ancient Greek physician. The doctor encouraged women to drink juice formed from a silphium plant, explaining that it “not only prevents conception but also destroys anything existing.”
Through “4,000 Years for Choice,” Ault calls attention to “stories about abortive herbs” including pennyroyal, Queen Anne’s lace and Artemisia. According to the National Institutes of Health, not only does pennyroyal cause abortions, but it can also kill the mother, and cause irreversible kidney and liver damage.
Megan Smith of the Repeal Hyde Project celebrated Ault’s exhibit, calling the posters “bold, beautiful statements to celebrate choice.”
Carole Joffe, a PhD at the University of California at Berkeley, called for “widespread distribution” of Ault’s work
“4,000 Years for Choice” is sponsored by the Program for Sexual Rights and Reproductive Justice. Part of the University of Michigan’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the program receives federal funding.
