In an ideal society, contraception and abortion are free and easily accessible for everyone.  In the real world there are huge variations in provision and legal, logistical and financial barriers prevent access to sexual healthcare. Stigmatisation is a factor as well.

Providers of sexual and reproductive health services very often receive a great deal of courtesy stigma – stigmatisation through association – which manifests itself in a variety of negative ways. Yet their work is enormously important: family planning, fertility control, (pre)maternal care, STD prevention and treatment, sex education, advice about contraceptive use and termination of pregnancies are key to the development of a community and the wellbeing of its members.

 

 

Nonconforming citizen Nys
Tom is a Belgian curator and arts writer who also worked in abortion care. Currently, he is pursuing a PhD at Loughborough University (UK) about contemporary visual arts that deal with abortion, and how such artworks and art projects can help to counter abortion stigma. Tom does not believe citizenship starts at conception.

 

 

Response: “[Re-]Imagining the Family: Forms, Values, Planning and Alternatives” Reading Groups

Two reading group sessions organised by Sophia Kier-Byfield, Tom Nys and Altea Solari at Palazzo Mora, Venice, 7 and 8 November 2019. For more information see here.

 

 

 

 

Response: “[Re-]Imagining the Family: Forms, Values, Planning and Alternatives” Reading Group in Loughborough

A follow-up reading group session organised by Sophia Kier-Byfield and Tom Nys, Loughborough University, 12 February 2020. For more information see here.

 

 

 

Response: Cards sent to LUNA, Belgium

Cards sent by Tom Nys to the five branches of LUNA, the umbrella organisation of Dutch-speaking abortion centres in Belgium, June 2020.