“I was really ill, screaming with pain. My mother was also by my side, desperate, holding my hand, not knowing what to do.”
Her father was religious and wanted her to seek spiritual cleansing afterwards.
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This picture was one of 12 images produced by Camila Cavalcante during the Despina Art Residency, in Rio de Janeiro, 2016. It was displayed on the exhibition Nós Por Todas - Série 1 at Largo das Artes.
“I didn’t want it, I was already a mother. The moral issue did not affect me because I think that we own our bodies and desires. The religious argument did not have any influence on me either because I am agnostic; it didn’t bother me.”
For her, besides being hypocritical, the abortion legislation is also classist. Middle-class women are not arrested for it; they have the complicity of their families, doctors and society in general.
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Image taken between January and February 2018 for the fourth series of Us For All
“It’s so obvious that the one who must decide is the woman! It’s her life that will change completely, it’s her body that will change. To criminalise it is to say that having a child will be her penalty, that she must be punished somehow.”
She thinks that not being able to talk about abortion increases the weight of this trauma. A burden that women carry on their own.
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Image taken in September 2017 for the third series of Us For All.
The third series of Us For All was possible thanks to the support of 62 backers through a crowdfunding campaign. If you still wish to contribute for the project, please visit www.igg.me/at/usforall
“Since it happened I get really cross because I don’t feel like an outlaw. It is a woman’s right; a group of men cannot decide about that.”
Even though she was very articulate about her reasons for having an abortion, she didn’t want anything that could identify her in the pictures. All the furniture had to be moved.
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This picture was one of 12 images produced by Camila Cavalcante during the Despina Art Residency, in Rio de Janeiro, 2016. It was displayed on the exhibition Nós Por Todas - Série 1 at Largo das Artes.
“Those who have to do it illegally are exposed to places that might not be safe and might give them a series of physical consequences to their bodies”.
She doesn’t think women should be embarrassed about having an abortion because it shouldn’t be considered a crime.
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This picture was one of 12 images produced by Camila Cavalcante during the Despina Art Residency, in Rio de Janeiro, 2016. It was displayed on the exhibition Nós Por Todas - Série 1 at Largo das Artes.
“I am an evangelical Cristian and I fight for a secular State. It’s about being for or against; it’s about decriminalizing, this is the question. Nobody deserves to go to jail because of that”.
She is very passionate about fighting for the things she believes, even when it goes against the official position of her own religion.
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This picture was one of 12 images produced by Camila Cavalcante during the Despina Art Residency, in Rio de Janeiro, 2016. It was displayed on the exhibition Nós Por Todas - Série 1 at Largo das Artes.
“I don’t feel guilty; I feel as if I have made a decision coherent with my life.”
Nowadays she realises how little information she had and how risky it was.
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This picture was one of 12 images produced by Camila Cavalcante during the Despina Art Residency, in Rio de Janeiro, 2016. It was displayed on the exhibition Nós Por Todas - Série 1 at Largo das Artes.
“If abortion was not forbidden, if it was legal, my mother would be with me now; this would not be the cause of death of so many women”.
Her mother was one of the victims of a clandestine abortion and the family fell apart after her death.
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This picture was one of 12 images produced by Camila Cavalcante during the Despina Art Residency, in Rio de Janeiro, 2016. It was displayed on the exhibition Nós Por Todas - Série 1 at Largo das Artes.
“People think that you decide to have an abortion effortlessly, but it’s not like that. When you make this decision, there is a relevant motive behind it. I didn’t want to have the child of the guy who destroyed me. I feel emotionally bankrupted.”
She already had a child from a previous relationship and knew very well the challenges and difficulties of raising someone without help. She is also very wary of the social expectations around motherhood.
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Image taken in September 2017 for the third series of Us For All.
The third series of Us For All was possible thanks to the support of 62 backers through a crowdfunding campaign. If you still wish to contribute for the project, please visit www.igg.me/at/usforall
“Between 11 and 18 years old I was part of an evangelical Christian congregation and that was an issue, but I had to have that abortion for myself. Sorry, but I’m not going to think about God in that moment. It’s my decision, it’s my situation, it’s my life.”
She felt guilty for a while, because people around her referred to the procedure as killing a life. However, she soon realised that nobody gives any assistance when the child is born and that that hypocrisy is common in countries that are so Christian, like Brazil.
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Image taken in September 2017 for the third series of Us For All.
The third series of Us For All was possible thanks to the support of 62 backers through a crowdfunding campaign. If you still wish to contribute for the project, please visit www.igg.me/at/usforall
“The moral question must be deconstructed from its own rhetoric by recognising the experience of others. This moral weight is implanted from birth and you must fight against it.”
She thinks that the abortions laws are part of a society in which a woman never really has real freedom of choice, particularly when it comes to reproductive rights.
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Image taken between July 2016 and January 2017 for the second series of Us For All
“When I started seeing my breasts darkening, my belly growing, and I was feeling weak, that brought horror to my life, it was a nightmare. I wanted to stick a knife in my belly and take it out by force. I didn’t want it! It was getting out of there in one way or another!”
It is very clear to her that the people who helped her with the procedure didn’t take a life away, they saved hers.
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Image taken in September 2017 for the third series of Us For All.
The third series of Us For All was possible thanks to the support of 62 backers through a crowdfunding campaign. If you still wish to contribute for the project, please visit www.igg.me/at/usforall
“There’s a very big stigma, not just for those who abort, but those who would have aborted, but instead abandon their baby. You’ll never be right. The responsibility is all with the woman”.
She thinks that this is a moment in time to be monitored not only by feminist activists, but by any woman, because conservative ideas that want to send us back to the beginning of the 20th century are very strong lately.
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This picture was one of 12 images produced by Camila Cavalcante during the Despina Art Residency, in Rio de Janeiro, 2016. It was displayed on the exhibition Nós Por Todas - Série 1 at Largo das Artes.
“If each person has the right to their own religion and individuality, they also have the right to own their bodies. Our bodies are our temple. It’s the only material thing that we really have, it cannot be taken from us.”
She thinks that guilt comes from the fact that women are neglected by the State because when you are neglected, you start doubting yourself.
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Image taken between July 2016 and January 2017 for the second series of Us For All
“A public debate is fundamental to end this hypocrisy.”
This is the main building of one of the largest universities in Brazil: Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
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This picture was one of 12 images produced by Camila Cavalcante during the Despina Art Residency, in Rio de Janeiro, 2016. It was displayed on the exhibition Nós Por Todas - Série 1 at Largo das Artes.
The crowdfunding campaign for:
For the Lives of All Women by Camila Cavalcante
Break the Habit Press and visual artist Camila Cavalcante have launched a crowdfunding campaign for their forthcoming book For the Lives of All Women.
In Brazil, abortion is illegal except in a case of rape, the mother’s life is in danger, or the foetus has anencephaly, a fatal brain disorder. The rise of conservative politicians and extreme religious lobby in the last couple of years has put women’s reproductive rights are in danger not just in Brazil, but also in America.
In the UK, access to abortion is still extremely limited in Northern Ireland, where the legislation only allows terminations if there is a serious and long-term risk to the mother’s physical or mental health.
When we restrict access to safe abortions, we take away a woman’s autonomy. We tell her that her body is not hers, that her safety is not hers, that her life is not hers. This must change.
Cavalcante spent two years travelling around Brazil, photographing women who have had, or who have been witness to, an illegal abortion. She photographed a total of fifty women who, with their identities protected, shared their stories and intensified the debate for women’s reproductive rights.
Fighting for the lives of all women, Cavalcanteexposes her own body and identity.
Within this context For the Lives of All Women is an act of rebellion in itself.
The crowdfunding campaign will run for December. To support this campaign, backers can pledge between £5 and £400 on the Indiegogo page in return for fantastic rewards such as a bag, a t-shirt, signed book and VIP bundle with a special invite to the launch.
Go to http://igg.me/at.ftloaw
Without help, this book will not be possible. If the target of £4,500 isn’t reached, backers will get their money back and the book will not be printed.
About the author
Camila Cavalcante is a visual artist from the north-east coast of Brazil, currently settled in the UK. She holds a Masters of the Arts degree from University of Westminster and works for the London School of Photography. Camila was awarded two photography national prizes in her home country and has taken part in over 30 exhibitions and three art residencies in Brazil, the US, Mexico and the UK.
About the publisher
Break the Habit Press is an independent publisher of feminist non-fiction, dedicated to publishing books with a social slant and covering topics that they feel need to be challenged.
