Holly Ballard Martz – Abortion is Healthcare. ‘This is a state of emergency for abortion rights right now.’ Photograph: SaveArtSpace

In order to encourage voters to prioritize women's health in time for the midterm elections, artists have created billboards in places around the US with limited access to abortions

For the next two weeks, those passing by 12 US cities, many of which are in states with restricted or shaky access to abortion, will see messages that are unmistakably positive and obvious in response to the reproductive health crisis in the country.

“Abortion is Healthcare,” says one billboard in Louisville, Kentucky, where the right to abortion is on the ballot this week, around two pink stethoscope cords in the shape of a uterus. In New Orleans, a sign blares “THANK GOD FOR ABORTION” in stark black and white, an angel flying off the top right corner. In Atlanta, site of two of the most closely watched midterm races this year, a background of lush green leaves underscores blooming text composed of tropical flowers: “ABORTION IS LIFE."

The billboards, 14 in all, are part of the exhibition Vote For Abortion Rights, which was organized by the Brooklyn-based nonprofit SaveArtSpace and Swedish-American conceptual artist Michele Pred. The project, which was created by ten different artists, including Pred, implores spectators to express their indignation, indifference, hopelessness, or perplexity over the decline of reproductive health care in the US this month at the polls.

Pred had the idea for the project in May, just before the supreme court's decision to abolish a woman's right to an abortion that has been protected by Roe v. Wade for 50 years was announced in late June. Reproductive freedom was ceded to state governments after the conservative majority's 6-3 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, some of which promptly restricted all abortions.

Since June, 18 states have approved trigger laws or hurriedly enacted regulations outlawing abortion; this week's midterm elections will see the issue on the ballot in five more states.

Michele Pred – 1973. Photograph: SaveArtSpace

Roadside billboards are often used as a vehicle for conservative propaganda. In my home state of Ohio, where fundamentalist Christian signs are common and abortion access is restricted by a court order, the most renowned billboard simply reads: HELL IS REAL. Pred, according to the Guardian, identified the common billboard as "an incredible form of public art that spread to a very large audience." "And, I think, a very important audience: the majority of the population, who don't visit museums or galleries."

Billboards are "really one of the most democratic forms of artwork, because everyone gets exposed to them, whether on a freeway or in a neighborhood," she added. The initiative, which received proposals from over 400 artists, sought to physically spread the message in states including Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Georgia, Nevada, Tennessee, and Kentucky where abortion access is threatened by conservative voting blocs or minority rule governments. Bud Snow, Holly Ballard Martz, Laney Baby, Lena Wolf & Hope Meng, Shireen Liane, Viva Ruiz, Wildcat Ebony Brown, and Yvette Molina are just a few of the artists that are taking part. Pred, whose project curation aligns with her most recent exhibition Equality of Rights in New York, has another installation up until November 13 that depicts a purse with the year 1973 written on it, the year the Roe decision was made. It is located above Manhattan's West Side Highway at West 46th Street and 12th Avenue.

Although Pred has shown work specifically addressing reproductive justice in New York or close to her home base in Oakland, California, she cautioned against "preaching to the choir." "I pledged to put in more effort in these other states, where it's most crucial. Actually, here is where it's crucial since it could influence people's opinions, give them inspiration, or cause them to consider something differently.

Pred purposefully chose artists whose work was not "violent, angry, or bloody" because, in her words, "if it's going to be a bloody coat hanger, that's not going to change anyone's minds in those states," iconography based on the fear of going back to a pre-Roe era of risky backroom or self-administered abortions would not change anyone's minds. No one is inspired by it, and no one's minds are being changed by it. Even if it is emotionally effective, such imagery reflects "the negative images that they are presenting to us"—misleading anti-abortion representations of bloodied babies or hellish punishment, which may be seen along many US highways.

Wildcat Ebony Brown – Abortion is Life. Photograph: SaveArtSpace

Vote For Abortion Rights' illustrations reframe abortion as healthcare, freedom, and life rather than as an attack ad for the pro-choice movement. The New Orleans billboard for Viva Ruz has the slogan of her advocacy work: "Thank God for Abortion." Talk about changing the script, huh? ” said Pred. "Perhaps doing that will encourage some individuals to adopt new perspectives. I wanted to put billboards up that are maybe thought stimulating in a good manner to those who could be voting against abortion.”

A mix of large national corporations and small local companies operated billboards, but not all of them were receptive to the messaging. Shireen Liane, a London-based artist who had previously had two abortions, hoped that her artwork, which reads "abortion is healthcare" in green letters above an American flag, would be shown around Phoenix, Arizona. But only a business in Las Vegas gave its approval to the design. Pred acknowledged the lack of control in choosing the placement for each installation and added, "The billboard firms were often cautious, and we went into this knowing that. The intention was to raise them as much as possible throughout the nation.

Pred said she is optimistic that the nationwide project will maintain crucial momentum against obstinate anti-abortion lawmakers and the likelihood that things will get worse before they get better, whether it is catching a driver's attention or reminding someone committed to reproductive rights to get to the polls for the midterms. She remarked, "I'm very concerned that there are still not enough people and not enough women who are going to vote." “This is a state of emergency for abortion rights right now.”