4000 Years for Choice develops visual narratives about the practices of contraception and abortion from around the world for the past 4000 years. The project hopes to celebrate, inspire, and empower women and men in their reproductive lives!

The project has three main goals:

1. Produce symbols! The 4000 Years for Choice project seeks to create new icons, symbols, and images about reproductive choice. Since the days of Roe v Wade, the pro-choice movement has presented images of feminists, coat hangers, and dead women to represent reproductive rights. Now is the time for a broader and more dynamic visual campaign!

2. Teach history! This project reframes the current abortion debate through a new lens: the ancient traditions of abortion and contraception from the past 4000 years. Most people believe that reproductive control is recent “invention” or “idea” that developed as a result of the feminist movement, political rights, or medical technology, and therefore, must be “defended” or we will return to the days of “back ally abortions.” Rather, reproductive control is inherent to all human societies and a fundamental human desire.

3. Celebrate clinics! The 4000 Years for Choice project focuses on the most vulnerable spaces in the abortion debate: the clinics in our communities where anti-choice protesters are a daily sight, especially during the 40 Days for Life campaign. 4000 Years for Choice hopes to reclaim clinic spaces in two ways; 1) through a weekly postcard campaign to clinics, and 2) an upcoming grassroots clinic celebration campaign in Summer 2010.

About the Artist

Heather Ault is an artist, designer, and activist who is creating visual narratives about the history of abortion and contraception around the world. She is currently engaged in a project called “4000 Years for Choice”. She is passionate about creating connections between artists, historians, and the pro-choice community in order to celebrate the ancient traditions of reproductive control we continue to practice today! She resides in Urbana, Illinois where she is a graduate student in the University of Illinois School of Art and Design.

More of Heather Ault’s work can be viewed at www.heatherault.org.