Reproductive Justice
Lauren Betenson
how race, class, gender, sexual orientation, educational attainment, politics and zip code shape reproductive health care experiences and health policy.
About the Commission
The Gund Foundation Photography Commission was initiated in 1990 in order to spotlight the critical and significant work of the Foundation’s partners within the greater Cleveland community.
Each year, provided with a theme representing an important grant making priority, photographers are given the artistic freedom to interpret it in alignment with their individual creative practice. What has emerged is a project unique in the photographic world, both in its longevity and purpose. In its over 30-year history, the Foundation has worked with many exceptional artists who, in turn, have partnered with a wide array of individuals and organizations to capture compelling images of people, places, and the remarkable work being accomplished. While the photographs are of Cleveland, the images stand in as a microcosm of the world around us. A sampling of the work can be seen throughout the website.
A complete collection of the commissioned photographs can be viewed here.
About the Artist
Carmen Winant is a writer and visual artist known for her exploration of female representations through collage, mixed media, and installation. She currently serving as an Associate Professor in the Department of Art at The Ohio State University, where she holds the Roy Lichtenstein Chair of Studio Art. Winant’s work weaves together found and authored images, utilizing interview content to shape and influence the story. The commissioned work aims to create a paradigm shift, striving for the normalization of healthcare work.
Hear the interviews:
Chrisse France
Director
Preterm
Dr. Sri Thakkilapati
Interim Executive Director
Preterm
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Women who had the means would leave the state to have a safe abortion, and women who didn’t ended up in the emergency rooms and in OB/GYN wards. Most of our physicians were obstetricians who were seeing these women come through the hospitals where they worked. They were dedicated to having nobody suffer. They knew there were safe alternatives. They carried on.
"
My trajectory towards reproductive justice began when I was in high school. My best friend got pregnant. This was 1973. I lived in a small Ohio town. Roe had just become the law of the land, but there was no clinic anywhere — none that we knew of. The was no place for her to go. Her options were to marry this man that she didn’t want to marry and have this baby, or get an abortion, which we didn’t know how to do. She had the baby in March. It ruined her life. She stayed married for a year or two and then left. She never really recovered. She had such limited choices. That stuck with me.
"
We made our clinic into a feminist workplace, a feminist culture. We are not governed by profit. There is a norm of compassion. The importance of our staff’s wellbeing is just as important as that of our patients. What do they need to survive? Can they pay their electric bills, their childcare bills? What if their kids are sick, or their mother is in jail? The system isn’t set up to support women in this way, which poses a challenge: how do we have attendance accountability and a consistent workforce when we know this is the system our staff is dealing with? When humanizing our workers is a priority? We made staff loans available.
"We need to keep things running while maintaining our feminist values from the inside out."
"
We offer a non-judgmental space. To talk to women about their decision, we validate their feelings, we ask them what they want their experience to look like. We acknowledge their emotional and spiritual knowledge. We operate against the idea that you can just treat the body, not the whole person. That idea, of not talking to the person, to whom you are delivering care, has been made normative. It stems from the colonial practice of medicine, one that was developed through experimentation on, and authority over, non-white patients. Medicine has not fully reconciled its origins, and the effect can be so alienating for a patient. We work to refuse this, to offer whole-person care.
"
Preterm was founded in 1973, shortly after the Roe vs. Wade decision; it opened in 1974 with a $50,000 grant from the Gund Foundation and a loan from Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Our founders were positioned to get to work on this right away because they had, in some sense, already been doing the work. A group of five women, including Mickey Stern and Sally Tatenal, had been doing abortion referrals out of state, usually to New York state, for several years. They Gave people a place to call, stewarded them to good clinics. They had two phones, which were always ringing. It is hard to imagine what it must have been like then — now we have had five decades of legal, safe abortion access – the level of fear and stigma that people had. They were so thorough, this group vetting abortion providers, making sure they were real physicians. They had a three-page checklist; they visited providers out of state and only referred to people who met these standards.
People face so many limiting forces
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It is about race, class, access to eduction. So much more than gender. People face so many limiting forces. This is not a matter of individual people having a hard time. This is about how the system acts on people and the situations it puts them in. There is no support for people to have children. We see so many patients who have abortions because they cannot afford to have a baby. They don’t have a support system; their partner is in prison; whatever the case may be. That was a bit shift for me. I’ve gone from seeing this as an individual issue to a larger systems issue. There is no liberation from sexism without liberation from racism, without liberation from the oppressive economic system that we are embedded in.
“We are determined to provide the last safe abortion in Ohio. Our phones are ringing. If we do the last legal abortion in Ohio, that is what we will do. We will stay open for as a long as we possibly can. We will do abortions for as long as we possibly can.”
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feel more frightened than I ever have about the future of abortion. We don’t know what is going to happen. We have national – and state-based lawyers, we have policy wonks, researchers, and advocates. But I am worried. I feel fear, and sometimes despair. it was always hanging over our heads, the horror of it. how do I keep going?”
“It is such a basic thing. It is everything. Can you control your own body?”
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I had the FBI call me one day and say that somebody that they were tracking was planning to come to Cleveland – for me. How do you go about your business when you get a call like that? I was living alone then. Another time somebody called the phone and said that he was coming down with a shotgun and he would kill our nursing clinic staff. The FBI got involved in that one too. When the Operation Rescue people were going to come to my house, the cops told me to tell everyone on my block, which I did; I went door to door. Once I could see someone walking up to my front door at night with a giant cross. I turned out all the lights, I left out of the back. Of course, it was scary, but I was undeterred. We all were.
“I used to come up in the elevator with women who were clients. We had to pass through the protestors together. They would say to me. “They have no idea what life is like. How can they judge me?” It is so clear that they don’t value women and are threatened by our continued ability to determine our own futures. It is so painfully clear. That misogyny fuels so much of what is happening now. They don’t want to grant that agency.”
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It is hard to stay positive knowing that there is a good chance we could lose abortion in Ohio. The political climate is so scary here. The gerrymandering, the rule changing, the partisan court. The fight sometimes feels daunting. You know what? They cheat because they are in the minority. They have everything in place now to do their worst. The most powerful people in the state think every single day about how they can shut us down, show down clinics. In moments like these, I think about what the women before me went through. What they built. They just figured it out, you know? How to make a feminist nonprofit in the mid-1970s in Cleveland, one that has lasted fifty years. How the fuck did they do that? They were so thorough, so determined. They had so much care and so much grit.
Community Connectivity
Lauren Betenson
Sidaway Bridge, Hough Community Solar Garden, Irishtown Bend, LAND Studio, Lakeview Terrace
Sidaway Bridge, Hough Community Solar Garden, Irishtown Bend, LAND Studio, Lakeview Terrace
Sidaway Bridge
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While no single person, corporation, or governmental entity can single-handedly resolve such complex issues as climate change, racism, sexism, or threats to democracy, it is our belief that everyone can make a contribution.
Treecover
Lauren Betenson
Alliance for The Great Lakes, Cleveland Metroparks
Alliance for The Great Lakes, Cleveland Metroparks
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...the media continue to prioritize stranded polar bears on melting ice caps rather than understanding how that reality is connected to flooding and land erosion that leads to the loss of homes for people.
Lakefront Nature Preserve
Greenspace
Lauren Betenson
Garden of 11 Angels
Garden of 11 Angels
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No form of justice can be realized without centering the voices and lived experiences and expertise of the people most impacted by an injustice or a series of injustices.
Garden of
11 Angels
David Wilson
admin@blackenvironmentalleaders.org
Black Environmental Leaders
Community Health
Lauren Betenson
Redhouse Architecture
Redhouse Architecture
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To address the climate crisis, philanthropists—like artists, activists, advocates, all of us—must make the connections between climate justice and economic development, housing stability, healthcare, and education. At the Gund Foundation, we have made deep investments that demonstrate vivid overlap among these program areas.
Environmental Justice
Lauren Betenson
Danielle Bowman (2021)
Dannielle Bowman is a visual artist working with photography. Bowman has been an artist in residence at Light Work, Baxter St at the Camera Club of New York, and The Center for Photography at Woodstock. Bowman was awarded the 2020 Aperture Portfolio Prize and she is a 2022 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow Finalist in Photography from The New York Foundation for the Arts. Her work for the George Gund Foundation Annual portfolio strives to capture Environmental Justice advocacy at work in Cleveland.
Urban Farming
Rid-All Green Partnership
Community Health
Redhouse Architecture
Greenspace
Garden of 11 Angels
Treecover
Alliance for The Great Lakes, Cleveland Metroparks
Community Connectivity
Sidaway Bridge, Hough Community Solar Garden, Irishtown Bend & Lakeview Terrace
Democracy
Lauren Betenson
Brian Palmer (2020)
Photography
Brian Palmer (b. 1964, Queens, NY) is a photographer and award-winning journalist based in Richmond, Virginia. He strives to tell stories that might not otherwise be told—stories of conflict, activism, and daily life. His multimedia approach unites narratives and images, bridging the two to unite comprehensive storytelling and thorough investigation.
16 October 2020
Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, Cleveland, OH—Early voting and ballot drop-off at the one early voting site in the county.
President Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Joe Biden hold separate town halls after debate scrapped
Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Kamala Harris suspends travel after campaign coronavirus exposure
U.S. jobless claims hit 898,000 last week, most since late August
New U.S. coronavirus infections top 60,000 for the first time in two months
Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie says he was ‘wrong’ not to wear mask at White House
17 October 2020
Woodland Cemetery, Cleveland, OH—Headstone for Reverend Hiram Wilson, abolitionist.
Headstones for United States Civil War veterans, including United States Colored Troops (USCT), United States Colored Infantry (USCI), United States Colored Heavy Artillery (USCHA), as well as Ohioans and others.
U.S. passes 8 million COVID-19 cases
U.S. Supreme Court to consider whether President Trump can exclude undocumented immigrants from census count
Pfizer could seek COVID-19 vaccine emergency authorization in mid-November
President Trump reverses course, approving wildfire relief for California
Town hall ratings show Democratic candidate Joe Biden had more viewers than President Trump
Republican Utah Senator Mitt Romney criticizes President Trump for not denouncing QAnon conspiracy theory
Federal deficit reaches record $3.1 trillion
20 October 2020
Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, Cleveland, OH—Early voting and ballot drop-off at the one early voting site in the county.
President Trump attacks Dr. Anthony Fauci as ‘disaster’
U.S. Supreme Court lets Pennsylvania extend mail-in voting
Microphones to be muted to avoid some interruptions at presidential debate
CDC recommends all plane, train passengers wear masks
22 October 2020
Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, Cleveland, OH—Cast in CLE shuttle bus to polls partly sponsored by Famicos.
Hyatt Regency at the Arcade, Cleveland, OH—Final 2020 presidential debate between candidate Joe Biden, former vice president, and President Donald J. Trump.
Former President Barack Obama rebukes President Trump in first speech for the Biden campaign
Democrats to boycott committee’s confirmation vote on Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett
U.S. officials warn Iran and Russia attempting election interference
New U.S. coronavirus cases exceed 60,000 for second straight day
23 October 2020
Cleveland, OH—Early voting at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.
Cleveland, OH—Early voting at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections; Shooting Without Bullets wheat pastes posters of the late Stephanie Tubbs Jones, former U.S. Representative (11th Congressional District)—“also the first black woman to become a judge of Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, as well as the county’s first black prosecutor”—on the outside walls of the ACLU Ohio.
President Trump, Joe Biden differ sharply on coronavirus, climate change in final debate
Republicans on Senate panel advance Amy Coney Barrett nomination
Biden promises commission to study courts
President Trump posts footage of 60 Minutes interview he abruptly ended
Weekly new U.S. jobless claims fall below 800,000
U.S. officials warn that Russian hackers targeted state and local governments
FDA approves remdesivir for COVID-19 treatment
Second U.S. federal court rules against President Trump’s push to change reapportionment count
24 October 2020
Antioch Baptist Church, Cleveland, OH.
U.S. sets new single-day coronavirus case record
President Trump, Joe Biden to campaign in key battleground states
U.S. coronavirus death toll could pass 500,000 by March, study suggests
Final 2020 U.S. Presidential debate draws 63 million viewers, down from the first debate
AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson preparing to restart paused vaccine trials
Early data suggests schools aren’t driving coronavirus outbreaks
6 January 2021
Cudell Commons Park, Cleveland, OH—Site where 12-year-old Tamir Rice was killed by Cleveland Police Officer Timothy Loehmann November 2014. The gazebo near which he was killed was removed and relocated to Chicago. In January 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it would not charge Loehmann or his partner Frank Garmback.
U.S. Congress convenes to certify President Elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory
Wisconsin prosecutor says no charges against officers over Jacob Blake shooting
U.S. judge rejects President Trump’s effort to decertify Georgia election result
Pro-Trump mob attacks U.S. Capitol
U.S. Congress, Vice President Mike Pence certify Joe Biden’s electoral victory
U.S. coronavirus deaths hit single-day record near 4,000
Twitter, Facebook lock President Trump’s accounts
2 more Louisville detectives fired over Breonna Taylor killing
9 January 2021
East Cleveland, OH—Memorial for Vincent Belmonte, 19, killed on Tuesday, January 5 allegedly by a member of the East Cleveland Police Department as Belmonte was driving his girlfriend to work in a borrowed car.
Cleveland, OH—Soldiers and Sailors Monument, four statues depicting Civil War-era martial scenes—“four bronze groupings on the esplanade depict, in battle scenes, the Navy, Artillery, Infantry and Cavalry”— around a central column topped with a figure representing the “Goddess of Freedom.” “Mortar Practice” shows five U.S. Navy artillerymen and an officer, including a shirtless Black man, loading their weapon.
Democrats move toward impeachment of President Trump for inciting January 6 insurrection
Twitter permanently suspends President Trump’s account
President Trump confirms he won’t attend Joe Biden’s inauguration
Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski calls for President Trump to resign
President Elect Joe Biden plans to release most COVID-19 vaccine doses
New charges brought in pro-Trump riot
U.S. economy lost 140,000 jobs in December, the 1st loss since April
11 January 2021
Cleveland, OH—Statue of former Cuyahoga County Prosecutor (1957–91) John T. Corrigan, in Fort Huntington Park, across from the Cuyahoga County Justice Center and Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court.
Twelve Literary Arts, Cleveland, OH—Daniel Gray-Kontar, Founder and Executive Artistic Director of Twelve, meets with staffer Stephanie Ginese and artist Terrell. The young people suggested services and institutions that could be built on empty or abandoned plots of land.
Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, says House will impeach President Trump unless Vice President Pence acts to invoke 25th Amendment
U.S. lawmakers possibly exposed to coronavirus during riot lockdown
Rioters who had zip-ties arrested as roundup continues
Parler knocked offline after Amazon suspends service
FBI warned of threat ahead of mob’s U.S. Capitol siege
U.S. Capitol Police officer dies in apparent suicide
PGA board moves 2022 golf championship from Trump course
Marriott, Blue Cross halt donations to lawmakers opposing electoral results
12 January 2021
University Settlement, Broadway Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio—Food pantry in Slavic Village neighborhood.
House Democrats introduce impeachment article
U.S. coronavirus deaths surpass 375,000 after record surge
Homeland Security secretary resigns over ‘recent events’
Two Democrats test positive for coronavirus after riot lockdown
Parler sues Amazon over server ban
FBI warns of possible armed protests at state capitols
U.S. sanctions Ukrainians over election meddling
Two Capitol Police officers suspended over actions in riot
President Trump, Vice President Pence meet for 1st time since deadly riot
9 April 2021
Erie Street Cemetery, Cleveland, OH.
Erie Street Cemetery, Cleveland, OH—Grave of Chief Joc-O-Sot/Walking Bear (Fox/Mesquakie or Meskwaki), 1810-1844. Fought in the Black Hawk War with the Sauk. Came to Cleveland after the war. Stone for Oghema Niagara of the band Pishqua, tribe Osauckee of the Algonquin nation, dubbed Chief Thunderwater by whites. Created the Supreme Council of Indian Nations.
Progressive Field, Cleveland, OH—Crowds arrive for game with the Detroit Tigers.
President Biden announces actions to address gun violence ‘epidemic’
Doctor: George Floyd died from ‘low level of oxygen’
Nearly 20 percent fully vaccinated in U.S.
Florida sues CDC to reopen cruise industry
10 April 2021
Islamic Center of Cleveland, Parma, OH—Event for children, New Dawn Ramadan, sponsored by the Misada Family Literacy Organization.
Medical examiner: George Floyd’s primary cause of death was neck compression
Amazon defeats union drive at Alabama warehouse
Pfizer asks FDA to authorize vaccine for adolescents 12 to 15
President Biden orders commission to study Supreme Court expansion, term limits
11 April 2021
Arcade, Cleveland, OH—Back of Cleveland baseball jersey bearing name of Satchel Paige worn by Donald Shingler, a Cleveland dentist.
Former President Donald Trump delivers insult-laden speech at Mar-a-Lago RNC gathering
U.S. Supreme Court strikes down California pandemic religious restriction
U.S. Army officer sues Virginia police officers for violating his rights during traffic stop
14 April 2021
Islamic Center of Cleveland, Parma, OH—Evening prayer in men’s section during Ramadan.
President Biden to announce withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11
Officer who shot Daunte Wright resigns as protests continue
White House says Johnson & Johnson pause won’t hamper vaccine campaign
President Biden proposes summit with Vladimir Putin as Ukraine tensions rise
Derek Chauvin’s lawyers start their defense
Watchdog report: Capitol Police held back on Jan. 6 despite warning
15 April 2021
Lucas Memorial Chapel, Garfield Heights, OH—Operations at the African American-owned funeral home.
Officer who fatally shot Daunte Wright charged with manslaughter
Defense expert says Derek Chauvin’s actions didn’t kill George Floyd
CDC panel wants more data before decision on Johnson & Johnson vaccine
DOJ: No charges against officer who fatally shot woman in U.S. Capitol riot
Corporate leaders sign statement against proliferation of Republican-sponsored laws making voting harder
U.S. House panel advances bill on creating a commission to study reparations
U.S. to expand sanctions on Russia over corporate hacking and other actions
Bernie Madoff, infamous Ponzi scheme mastermind, dies in prison
16 April 2021
East Cleveland Public Schools, Cleveland, OH.
Derek Chauvin declines to testify as defense rests in George Floyd case
U.S. sanctions Russia over hacking, election meddling
At least 8 dead in Indianapolis FedEx shooting
Chicago releases body-cam video of police shooting of boy
U.S. intelligence report: Paul Manafort associate shared Trump polling data with Russian intelligence
Nancy Pelosi: “No plans” to take up proposal to expand U.S. Supreme Court
Birthing Beautiful Communities
Lauren Betenson
Deana Lawson (2019)
Photography
Deana Lawson, an acclaimed artist who has been widely exhibited, turned her camera lens on the work of Birthing Beautiful Communities (BBC) for the photographic essay featured this year on our website. Lawson portrays the mothers, children, fathers and doulas who BBC brings together to save lives through early intervention.
Refugees & Immigrants
Lauren Betenson
Fazal Sheikh (2018)
Photography
The George Gund Foundation stands with those who are victims of weaponized language and political spin. We do so with our words, with our grants to agencies that work for immigrant and refugee justice and also with the powerful images presented in this annual report by acclaimed photographer Fazal Sheikh. Even when words may fail, these pictures of refugees and immigrants in Northeast Ohio make their statement in the language of photography, of art.
This photo essay lets them be seen – to the extent they wish to be seen, for some feared showing their faces. Even with that limitation, they make the simple but essential point that they are human beings with all of the emotions that any of us would feel in their circumstances. They remind us that the immigration debate is not about the politicians whose words may obscure or distort their lives.
Arts as Political Activism
Lauren Betenson
Accra Shepp (2017)
Photography
At a time when democracy is being severely challenged in America and abroad, The George Gund Foundation’s 2017 annual report focuses on the role of arts as political activism. Award-winning photographer Accra Shepp captured images of 15 Cleveland organizations whose work in some way represents their commitment to political expression.
![Formed in response to personal grief and systemic oppression, Mourning [A] BLKstar looks to forge new pathways toward heart music by melding soul, blues, electronics, avant-poetics with futurist beats.](https://gundfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/arts-as-political-activism-shepp-mabs-1-frame-7-8.jpg)
![Formed in response to personal grief and systemic oppression, Mourning [A] BLKstar looks to forge new pathways toward heart music by melding soul, blues, electronics, avant-poetics with futurist beats.](https://gundfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/arts-as-political-activism-shepp-mabs-2-frame-6.jpg)
