I took my painting, “‘We Won’t Go Back,” to the Indiana Special Session to criminalize abortion on July 25, 2022. I painted “We Won’t Go Back” the minute the Supreme Court “leaked” their judgment on Roe v Wade, my anger and frustration pouring out onto the 7 x 8 foot canvas. This may not be the most sophisticated painting I’ve ever made, but it is the most passionate. The thought that women would be forced into motherhood, taking away the right we fought for, and have had for 50 years, to be captains of our own bodies, to now have the government decide that women must continue every pregnancy, is unconscionable. That women would not have autonomy about what happens to their bodies, that their lives and their futures would be forever changed, is infuriating. Whether because, as with at least half of abortions, she already has children and cannot afford, financially or emotionally, the cost of raising another, or because the fetus has not formed properly, lacking a brain or a stomach or other body part to sustain life, or the fetus has implanted in the wrong place which will actually kill her, or due to a disability, where it is literally life-threatening for her to be pregnant, or simply because she got pregnant due to birth control not being 100% effective, or a mistake in the heat of sex, it doesn’t matter. Men who impregnante her get to walk off and live their lives however they wish, while she has her future dictated to her by a minority of religious zealots who think they are following Jesus. In fact, Jesus was a Jew, and the Jewish bible says life begins “at first breath,” not at conception. That a minority of religious zealots get to dictate to women, and families, the most basic and personal decision anyone can make, if and when to become a parent, is a direct violation of our constitution, which does not allow for the establishment of a religion, but does allow for freedom of religion. The constitution does not say every citizen must follow a small subsect of Christianity. In fact, the pilgrims came to America for the freedom to practice their Own religion, which is enshrined in the constitution. Ironic, no? Please don’t send me hate mail or try to convince me that abortion is murder. I am not with you. I AM 100% with Women having the Freedom to Choose If and When to become mothers. I am 100% with parents who may need to make an agonizing decision with the help of their doctor and spiritual support, how best to proceed. I am NOT for government, in any way, dictating to women and doctors what they cannot do. Period.

When we unfurled the painting on the steps of the capital the crowd erupted in cheers and began chanting “We Won’t Go Back.”