Abortion Action Week, May 1-6, 1972
A poster for a week of protests before Roe v. Wade shows marchers behind a banner reading "Women unite: abortion is our right!!" under the headline demands "Repeal all abortion laws and restrictive contraception laws and end forced sterilization!" The banner states the movement's conclusion as a right, the key word of its framing, while the headline lists concrete legal demands. The poster is openly signed by the coalition, with its New York address and telephone number.
- Date
- 1972
- Period
- Cold War
- Made by
- Women's National Abortion Action Coalition
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Movement
- Regime
- Nixon Administration
- Leader
- Richard Nixon
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- Gender and suffrage, Health
- Techniques
- Glittering generalities
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Library of Congress, retrieved September 27, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (published 1972 without copyright notice; LoC rights statement: No known restrictions on publication)
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Text on the object
Abortion Action Week May 1-6, 1972 Repeal all abortion laws and restrictive contraception laws and end forced sterilization! [banners carried by marchers, partly overlapping and illegible:] ASIAN WOMEN [illegible] [illegible] OUR DECISION!! [illegible] ABORTION [illegible] NO MORE [illegible] WOMEN UNITE: ABORTION IS OUR RIGHT !! WOMEN'S NATIONAL ABORTION ACTION COALITION For More Information: WOMEN'S NATIONAL ABORTION ACTION COALITION, 150 FIFTH AVENUE, SUITE 315, NEW YORK, N.Y. 10011, 212-675-9150
Several hand-lettered banners and placards carried by marchers in the photo overlap or are angled away from the camera and are only partly legible at this resolution (an 'ASIAN WOMEN...' banner at far left, a round 'ABORTION' button/sign at right, a 'NO MORE...' sign); those spans are marked [illegible] rather than guessed. The large main banner text ('WOMEN UNITE: ABORTION IS OUR RIGHT !!') and the headline block are clearly legible.
