Seeing Red
What happens when legislators ignore…
their constituents and channel their personal beliefs into our laws? Look back to 2022 when Senator Sue Glick (R) authored the near total abortion ban. The exceptions? Rape, incest, life of the mother but only within the highly designed and practically speaking, unrealistic, eight weeks since conception. Health of the mother? That does not weigh heavily enough against the tightly held christian beliefs of 26 people who we as the citizens of Indiana elected. They had the privilege of power and they wielded it unapologetically. They say they are saving babies. All while allowing women to die at the third highest rate and babies to die at the seventh highest rate in our country. This is not about saving any lives. This is purely about asserting power over women's bodies and minds.
Performance Piece Titled :: Seeing Red by Paula Shoultz
Photographed by :: Jordan Connor Christie
February 28th TWENTY25 at the Indiana State House; Capitol and Market Streets
This inclusion is an excerpt from the Artist’s Personal Statement
I was raised as a catholic girl. I was indoctrinated to believe that abortion was a failure on a woman's part. I bought in because it was all I ever knew. And the alternative was a deep rejection by my community if I even questioned this notion. The fear of rejection is a powerful thing. I was groomed to be submissive to men, authority, and to believe that all life was precious... but mine.
When I attended Herron School of Art and Design, I moved from my small town of Washington, Indiana and my eyes began opening to the oppression that I had experienced since I was a little girl. It wasn't until then I began questioning everything I had ever been taught. Through this questioning, I made a lot of art, each becoming more provocative than the last. I am in the profitless business of speaking loudly, taking up space, crossing red lines in order to stand with the marginalized and firmly against the oppression of said people, especially women.
It was devastating to me when after the votes confirmed the abortion ban here in Indiana, my seven year old daughter at the time, asked me if she ever had to have a baby. Previously, when Roe was in place, I was able to confidently tell her that her body is her own (because she had asked this question before)--and she will never have to do anything she didn't want to. At that moment, I was at a loss. I had to concede that, currently, in our home, we, as persons with uteruses, no longer have that kind of autonomy. Men are now allowed to take what they want from us and we will be forced to bear whatever comes from that. Trauma, pain, illness, whole people, in fact. We have a choice to prove rape or incest with a notarized affidavit adding to trauma from experience of assult or be silent and be forced to carry a pregnancy by our agressor.
Indiana is lacking in options for pregnant people to get basic maternal care prenatally and postnatally as 25 of Indiana's 92 counties are considered maternal healthcare deserts according to the CDC. Additionally, 40% of households in Indiana cannot afford basics (via unitedforalice.org) which overarchingly contributes to the lack of access to healthcare in general. Doctors are hesitant to give life saving care to women in their most urgent of hours because the lines of the law are blurry and our Attorney General, Todd Rokita, is hellbent on prosecuting any Indiana practicing doctor or resident who aids or abets an abortion anywhere. He is on a path to prosecute women who have sought life saving care through abortion in and out of our state, as he continues his fight to uncover data revealing their personal information.
Paula Shoultz Dances In Protest Of The Bill HB1169 On The Steps Of The Indiana State Courthouse On February 28th TWENTY25
Currently there is a bill that passed through the House that is set, this week or after, to be heard in the Senate that inhibits access to birth control for our poorest Hoosiers. HB 1169, authored by Rep. Jim Lucas (R), touts that it is expanding access to birth control, however, that is false as condoms and IUDs have been excluded and "fertility awareness based methods" inserted with an amendment to the bill added by Rep. Joanna King (R). This law is blatantly misleading and harmful. IUDs are long acting, reversible forms of contraception that are highly effective and sought after. Condoms are one of the most basic prophylactics and are also very effective. Fertility awareness based methods are scientifically and practically speaking, less effective than IUDs and condoms with a failure rate of 2-23% even with perfect use. Why are we misleading Hoosier women? According to an article in the Indiana Capital Chronicle, an argument that Rep. Matt Hostettler (R) made in defense of pulling condoms from the bill is that he stopped in a single package store in Posey County on a single day and saw a gallon jar of free condoms from the local health department and that is evidence "they are raining condoms down". In the same article, Rep. Joanna King said that the amendment is "....giving kind of a guardrail for the health departments — this is what we would like you to do, and this is how we would like you to do it, so that it’s the same in every community." What are our lawmakers doing with our tax dollars? They are wasting it by inserting themselves and their own personal agendas into the operations of our local health departments. This bill is harmful to women, especially low income women in locales where there is little to no access to maternal care. It is cruel and out of touch with the reality of our state's economy and the needs of all Hoosiers.
On Friday, February 28th…
I put my body on the line in a very public way in order to draw attention to the absurdity of the decisions of this legislative body. Our lawmakers have proven to disregard the convictions of the very folks who put them in office by continuing to push forward their christian nationalist agendas with bills like HB 1169. They are actively turning their backs on women who are here, alive, and trying to survive in order to save the clumps of cells deep inside the tissues of our bodies. They have been clear that they want less government involvement in their affairs, yet continue to actively legislate my bodily functions. I wanted to come to the state house as a pregnant woman in a wedding gown and an apron and die naked on the front steps of their house. I knew no one would come to my rescue. Just like no one is coming to simply support women and pregnant people on the most basic level. Indiana is a dangerous place to live as a woman where we can be forced to birth babies because 26 people voted it into law...and we do not have fair affordable access to contraceptives that are best for each as individuals. HB 1169 does nothing to mitigate this dire situation. With a soundtrack including music from Blaze Foley, Pussy Riot, Yehezkel Raz, sounds of women's screams and more, I danced, sang, screamed, cradled my belly until I became distraught with pain and turmoil as the pregnancy was coming to an end. The apron came off, then the wedding gown, leaving me perceivably nude in order to express the level of vulnerability that we as women are forced to live with here in Indiana. This birthing was not that of a baby and a happily ever after but it was a hemorrhaging of hundreds of blood red rose petals that fell from my core and blew wildly in the wind falling at the feet of passersby and settling in crevices of the architecture of our Indiana State House... some say the blood is on their hands but I say it is under their feet, bubbling up in a way that can be ignored but only for so long.
End statement.
See Full Documentation Of Performance Art Piece Titled “Seeing Red” by Paula Shoultz
Published with consent of the artist & participant on behalf of Jordan Connor Christie, artist behind the creative movement Animal In A Dress.
