color pencil; 16×20″
“The pro-life movement didn’t start because the people thought the right to choose was murder; it started because the fledgling American Medical Association, an Association that purposefully excluded women and black people from joining, didn’t like how the women were making good money on jobs in what was classified at the time as women’s work; the Association saw it as competition. Hence, they started writing and making a campaign to ban the right to choose, and it was successful. My imagery is a young girl and her older brother at Planned Parenthood, inspired by a story of a worker who said her youngest patient was only 10 years old. A white wilting flowers is coming from the young girl’s stomach, white symbolizing her innocence wilting away. She is holding a medusa doll to represent the same meaning as the medusa tattoo. No one should dictate what you can or cannot do with your own body, especially something as traumatic as pregnancy. Looking ahead, envision a world where individuals have the right to decide what happens to their bodies.”
ARTIST BIO: Marielena OLVERA is a grade 11 student at Butler Tech School of Art studying art under art teacher Mary Catherine Ruby.