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Poignant Pics no.66: On Shane Balkowitsch's "Without a Choice"

Diana Nicholette Jeon

Welcome to no. 66 in our series Poignant Pics, where our editor, Diana Nicholette Jeon, writes about “Without a Choice” by Shane Balkowitsch.

"I hunger for images that I have an emotional response to, or whose meaning I relate to one that makes me cry or angers me, or evokes a response in me."

—Diane Fenster

Diane Fenster's quote immediately struck a chord because I feel the same way: art needs to make me feel something; I have to find meaning. Pretty images are 'nice,' but they do not do enough for me if pretty is all that is there. Let's say this: I will never be the photographer who seeks out the beautiful Waikiki sunsets to photograph (even though they are often spectacular.) I like my art to have substance. That substance might be how the artist used media to change or underscore the concept, the content itself, or the masterful way the artist has conquered photographic technique and media. There are others, but this gives you an idea of how I think about this. During my 26 months of curating this feature, I've not written about an artist more than once. It's not because I like their work any less, but instead, I choose to show a wide variety of excellent work by many different living artists. Then this image crossed my path on Facebook, and given the current state of the American Experiment, I decided to break my own rule. 

Shane Balkowitsch is a master of creating flawless surface wet plate collodions. But that's not why I'm showing you this image. It's the content. Following the leak of the Roe document from the Supreme Court last week, several things happened in the U.S. at the state level that upset me.

  • The Republican-led Senate in Louisiana advanced a bill to make abortion a crime of homicide; both the mother and those assisting her in terminating the pregnancy can be charged.

  • Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed a bill criminalizing abortion-inducing drugs if provided by telehealth using the mail as the delivery vehicle.

  • The Alaska GOP rejected its state court rulings on abortion and called for a state constitutional convention to permanently criminalize it.

  • The Oklahoma Governor signed SB 1503, which takes effect immediately. Modeled after Texas' restrictive 6-week abortion ban, SB 1503 comes on the heels of the passage of SB 612, a near-total ban on abortion which will become law 90 days after the adjournment of the Oklahoma legislature. SB 1503 puts enforcement of the law in the hands of private citizens and allows vigilantes to act as bounty hunters and target abortion providers.

I find 'neighbor on neighbor' vigilantism and charging women with murder starting at the inception of pregnancy if they seek an abortion utterly frightening.

Balkowitsch is an RN and the father of three daughters. During nursing school, he learned of back-alley and coat-hanger abortions. He thought that someone must have to be in a horribly desperate circumstance to consider such barbaric methods of handling their situation. Once Balkowitsch determined that he wanted to create an image about this, he also wanted to involve women in the project since women would bear the primary burden of such a landmark ruling. He contacted his friend Eve Lancaster and his prop master Laine Pope, and after some thought, both agreed to participate. Pope, in particular, recalled tales told by her mother about the back alley procedures and their resulting devastation and loss of life. 

The idea for the composition came to him quickly. He also decided not to show any identifying information about the female model, allowing her to be a 'photographic everywoman.' The one thing he struggled with was how to ground the image in the present day. Because the glass plate may last 1000 years into the future, it would have to speak about this time long after those of us living during it are gone. To that end, he included the handbill with the text. The three collaborators agreed they would continue to make plates until they got one that all three felt spoke to them each personally. He told me, "Usually, there is excitement when we get the plate right, but not this time. We looked at each other, hugged, and knew our work was done. Having these two fabulous women creating with me took this specific work to another level."  

He continued, "My father left when I was nine years old, leaving my mom alone with three young boys to raise. I know how difficult it was for her to provide for us. Men always have an out, they can always disappear, but that is not an option for most women. The burden of raising the family left behind falls to them. It's not fair…I truly feel these issues need to be left with the woman to determine her fate. If you do not have a uterus, you should not have a say in what a woman can or cannot do with hers. But this is not a simple topic; people remain divided. Historically we see periods where one population had control over another one. Like during slavery. Enslaved people had no rights and no say in their own lives. We've come far beyond that, and we now need to treat women better. They need to have the right to determine what is best for themselves, their lives, their bodies."

Without a Choice by Shane Balkowitsch with Eve Lancaster and Laine Pope

This image caused a mini-firestorm in some Facebook groups to which he posted it. I saw comments that shamed him, others stating the photo was political and should not be allowed in a group about large format photography (despite it being a large format photograph.) There were comments from people who did not believe that back-alley abortions had actually happed who accused him of spreading misinformation and lies. There was one negative comment from a woman, but overwhelmingly, men made these comments. Balkowitsch told me, "Being honest, the kind and supportive comments greatly outweighed the negative ones. But that small percentage of deniers or haters had the loudest voices. They had no compassion or empathy. None of us know what circumstances a woman may be dealing with, so the decision must stay with her. Women with resources, money, and personal or family power will always have the ability to get excellent medical attention; they can afford to travel if they need to. The single mothers and poor women are the ones that overturning Roe will most drastically and negatively impact. I am glad that I made this image, and I stand by it."

Many politicians use language that would have one believe that "pro-choice" and "pro-abortion" are the same thing, that all who support choice think that women getting abortions for no valid reason up to their due date is A-OK. It's just not the case. I don't know anyone in real life or virtually who is "pro-abortion," though I know many people who support the right of the woman/the woman and her doctor to decide how to handle an unplanned pregnancy. Imagine how you would feel if you, your sister, or your wife learned that carrying to full term would mean possible or even certain death; if when someone raped your 13-year-old daughter, it resulted in unwanted and traumatic pregnancy? How about if your brother-in-law molested your 14-year-old daughter, and the result was a pregnancy? The leaked document makes no exceptions for any situations that include maternal health, rape, or trauma.

I have first-hand knowledge of one case where an older brother raped a 13-year-old girl. Their mother refused to accept the daughter's story and forced the girl to have the baby. The mother then raised the baby as if it was her child in the same family unit as the sister and brother. It ultimately led to the girl, then just short of 15, leaving home when the child was one to live with a different family—mine. The girl's family stopped speaking and broke apart, and some years later, the brother spent time in jail for what he did. How would you feel if this was your family? Would you want your loved one or child forced into a pregnancy they do not want, one that might be a constant reminder of a traumatic situation, which could change the trajectory of her life and possibly your entire family's?

What if the Supreme Court consisted primarily of women, and they handed down a decision that would result in all men getting a mandatory vasectomy at age 13? What if the court further ruled that men would be unable to reverse the procedure unless married and both spouses underwent counseling to ensure they were doing the right thing in deciding to have a child? And that once the woman was pregnant, you would have to get snipped again. Doing so would effectively end the majority of situations that may result in needing an abortion (excepting maternal health.) Some might say, "Problem solved!" You might reply, "Heck, NO! That would be an incredibly restrictive and invasive law, and the government has no right to make such a decision for men!" According to pollsters, that is precisely how most American citizens of voting age feel about the overturn of Roe v. Wade.

Whatever you feel about this specific issue, the way Justice Alito parses language in that document leads us down a slippery path concerning a range of hard-won civil rights. Alito argued that for an unwritten liberty right to be legitimate, it must be deeply rooted in the nation's history and exist when the 14th Amendment was ratified (1868.) Times have changed, society has changed, and views have evolved. Do we as Americans choose to have contemporary rights issues adjudicated on what existed in 1868?

I felt this image presented the pre-Roe era in a way that could encourage people who never knew about or thought about a time before Roe to look deeply at this potential ruling and its language—to consider its ramifications and implications for themselves and their loved ones.

Bravo, Shane, for making a work that makes people feel intensely and think deeply about this incredibly personal and divisive issue.

Artist Bio

Shane Balkowitsch is a self-taught image-maker from Bismark, North Dakota, where he runs Nostalgic Glass Wet Plate Studio. He works with an 8 x10 Gibellini camera using the wet plate process and is renowned for his mastery of this challenging, archaic process. Since establishing his studio in 2012, he has made over 3800 wet plate images. His work has been featured in numerous publications, including Analog Forever, My Modern Met, L’oeil de la Photographie, and Peta Pixel, among others. Balkowitsch’s work is held in numerous private and public collections, including 28 museum collections; notable collections include the Smithsonian Museum, the Heard Museum, and the Library of Congress. 

More of his work may be found on his website.

NOTE: Balkowitsch made a 50-print signed inkjet print edition of this image as a fundraiser for the Red River Women’s Clinic in Fargo, North Dakota. He also has created a “the making of” webpage where readers can learn more about the process of creating this image.

Some Data For Your Consideration:

Illegal abortion frequency declined after Roe

  • Estimates of the number of illegal abortions in the 1950s and 1960s ranged from 200,000 to 1.2 million per year.

  • One analysis, extrapolating from data from North Carolina, concluded that an estimated 829,000 illegal or self-induced abortions occurred in 1967.

  • The number of illegal procedures in the country plummeted from around 130,000 to 17,000 between 1972 and 1974.

  • The number of deaths associated with illegal abortion decreased from 39 to five in that same time period; women who died as a result of illegal abortions typically were black, were more than 12 weeks pregnant, and had self-induced in their own community.

One stark indication of the prevalence of illegal abortion was the death toll. (These are the numbers that were officially reported; the experts believe the actual number was likely much higher)

  • In 1930, abortion was listed as the official cause of death for almost 2,700 women—nearly one-fifth of maternal deaths recorded in that year.

  • The death toll had declined to just under 1,700 by 1940; by 1950, it declined to 300. This latter is thought to be due to the introduction in the 1940s of antibiotics, which permitted more effective treatment of the infections that frequently developed after an illegal abortion.

  • By 1965, the number of deaths due to illegal abortion had fallen to just under 200, but illegal abortion still accounted for 17% of all deaths attributed to pregnancy and childbirth that year.

Poor women and their families were disproportionately impacted. A study of low-income women in New York City in the 1960s found that

  • Almost 8% had at some point attempted to terminate a pregnancy by illegal abortion.

  • 38% said that a friend, relative, or acquaintance had attempted to obtain an abortion.

  • Of the low-income women in that study who said they had had an abortion, 77% said that they had attempted a self-induced procedure; only 2% said that a physician had been involved in any way.

A clear racial disparity is evident in the data on illegal abortion

  • In 1962 alone, nearly 1,600 women were admitted to Harlem Hospital Center in New York City for incomplete abortions, which was one abortion-related hospital admission for every 42 deliveries at that hospital that year.

  • In 1968, the University of Southern California Los Angeles County Medical Center, a large public facility serving primarily indigent patients, admitted 701 women with septic abortions, one admission for every 14 deliveries.

  • In New York City in the early 1960s, one in four childbirth-related deaths among white women was due to abortion; in comparison, abortion accounted for one in two childbirth-related deaths among nonwhite and Puerto Rican women.

  • Even in the early 1970s, when abortion was legal in some states, a legal abortion was simply out of reach for many. Minority women suffered the most: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that in 1972 alone, 130,000 women obtained illegal or self-induced procedures, 39 of whom died. Furthermore, from 1972 to 1974, the mortality rate due to illegal abortion for nonwhite women was 12 times that for white women.

  • Between 1972-74, women who died as a result of illegal abortions typically were black, were more than 12 weeks pregnant, and had self-induced in their own community.

State Legislatures Are Vastly White and Male

  • On average women hold just 31 percent of seats in state legislatures.

  • There are only 15 women (11 Democrats and four Republicans) who serve as president or president pro-tem of state senates, and only six women (five Democrats, one Republican) serve as speakers of statehouses.

  • RepresentWomen’s 2021 Gender Parity Index found that over half of states (30) receive a D grade or worse for gender balance, meaning that representation ranges between 0-25 percent for over half the country.

  • Representation is even worse for women of color: Only 9 percent of state legislators are women of color

Sources Used:

ANSIRH at UC San Francisco Bixby Center for Reproductive Health

Bloomberg Law

CNN

The Guardian

Guttmacher Institute

Medical News Today

Ms. Magazine

New York Times

Politico

Wall St. Journal

Author Bio

Diana Nicholette Jeon is an award-winning artist based in Honolulu, HI, who works primarily with lens-based media. Her work has been seen both internationally and nationally in solo and group exhibitions. Jeon holds an MFA from UMBC.