Doctors Not Doctrine / Catholics for Choice
date: label: date made
content: 2022
name: label: maker
content: Wanzenried, Elyse
notes: label: Description
content: On June 24, 2022, Supreme Court released its decisions in the court case, Dobbs v. Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization. Roughly seven weeks previously, Politico had published a leaked draft version of the opinion which indicated that the court intended to overturn Roe v Wade, the1973 decision which had legalized abortion. By June, tensions were running high and it appeared likely that the official release of the decision would spark protests at the Supreme Court. Although opinions are typically released on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, the tensions around the Dobbs case and its leak led to the opinion being released on a Friday toward the end of June (the month when decisions are released). The court released its decision at mid-day and protestors, along with police and news media, immediately descended upon the court. The majority of individuals at the court on the 24th of June were there to protest the decision (as opposed to provide support for the decision).
label: Description
content: Elyse Wanzenried obtained this sign from a friend when she arrived at the Supreme Court on June 24, 2022 to protest the Court’s overturning of Roe v Wade. When passing the sign to her, Wanzenried’s friend, who worked for Catholics for Choice, told her “this one’s for you.” Although not Catholic, Wanzenried was raised in a family of Christian Scientists. She noted that, in conjunction with Christian Scientist beliefs, her “parents never brought my brother or myself to the doctor or hospital unless it was an absolute emergency and [they] denied scientific findings out of religious principle.” Wanzenried felt that the religion in which she was raised “bears marked similarity to mainstream American Christian discourse swirling around the abortion ‘debate’ today.”
label: Description
content: This religious background motivated Wanzenried to join the protest. She was especially concerned about the way in which religious belief “exercise[d] power over the bodies of people who can become pregnant.” Wanzenried’s decision to go to the Supreme Court on June 24, 2022 also stemmed from her belief that “every pregnant person deserves the dignity and banality of choosing the healthcare outcome that’s right for them.”
label: Description
content: Like many people at the protest, Wanzenried carried a mass-produced sign. However, she interpreted the sign through the lens of her own unique experiences. For Wanzenried, the sign’s primary message was that “doctors should be the ones to aid people receiving care, not the doctrine and prayer of a stranger.” Although she received the sign from a friend who worked for Catholics for Choice, Wanzenried was especially pleased to carry this sign because of the organization’s stated policy to “celebrate and uplift people who have had abortions.” In discussing her decision to carry this sign, she noted that “1 in 4 abortion patients is Catholic.”
label: Description
content: Wanzenried spent six hours at the protest. In the course of carrying the sign, her thumb partially rubbed away the logo on the sign’s bottom. For Wanzenried, the partially eradicated logo came to reflect her grief over “the loss of reproductive rights for myself and millions of Americans.” It also demonstrated her dedication to continuing the fight in post-Roe v Wade environment.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: District of Columbia, Washington
topic: label: general subject association; used; web subject
content: Supreme Court of the United States
label: general subject association; used; web subject
content: Abortion
label: general subject association; web subject
content: Women
label: general subject association; referenced; web subject
content: Physicians
label: general subject association; web subject
content: Obstetrics
label: general subject association; used; web subject
content: Gynecology
label: general subject association; used; web subject
content: Women's Health
label: general subject association; web subject
content: Pregnancy
label: general subject association; referenced; web subject
content: Birth Control/Contraception
label: general subject association; referenced; web subject
content: Activism
label: general subject association; referenced; web subject
content: Supreme Court of the United States
label: general subject association; used; web subject
content: Protest march
label: general subject association; used; web subject
content: Catholic Church
label: related event
content: Roe v. Wade
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
label: See more items in
content: Religion
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Elyse Wanzenried
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2022.0213.01
label: catalog number
content: 2022.0213.01
label: accession number
content: 2022.0213
objectType: label: Object Name
content: poster
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 12 in x 9 in; 30.48 cm x 22.86 cm