Description

With the rise of far-right conservatism and the installation of project 2025 under the Trump Administration, The Illusion of Choice depicts women’s struggle for the freedom of reproductive choice. This piece is a combination of Hannah Frogge’s endocrinology research and reproductive justice writer Victoria Houser’s work on the 3 pillars of reproductive freedom–the ability to have children, not have children, and to raise them in a safe and healthy environment. Based on research indicating that high cortisol levels lead to premature birth, this piece is meant to capture the medicalized aspects of giving birth and forms of birth control under a restricting government. Post-birth, your choices are limited. How will you protect yourself?

This artwork, created using colored pencil and oil pastel on drawing paper, portrays a surgeon’s bedside table following childbirth. In the far left corner lies a freshly removed placenta, while blood splatters across the table hint at a difficult delivery. This is reinforced by the emergency-only scissors, prominently labeled to indicate their specific use.

Beneath a metal tray sits an open birth control package, partially obscured by a gestation wheel—an instrument used to estimate due dates based on the last menstrual cycle. Nearby, a pamphlet intended for new parents suggests a tense and overwhelming atmosphere. Scattered Tylenol pills and a blood sample used to measure cortisol levels (a stress hormone associated with premature birth) echo the messiness of the scene.

Finally, a "Congratulations!" card sits ironically amid the chaos, challenging the traditional narrative that birth is always a joyful experience and instead highlighting how it can also be deeply traumatic.