Within hours of the historic Roe v Wade verdict, which allowed women access to legal abortions, being overturned by the US Supreme Court, memes with coat hangers popped up across the social media. In pro-choice protests, activists have turned to the coat hanger as a symbol and a warning for what lies ahead for women in America.

What is a ‘coat hanger abortion’?

A ‘coat hanger abortion’ technically means an unsafe abortion. It refers to the practice of using the object to induce an abortion, as with many other household objects or homemade herbal concoctions, in the unavailability of safe or legal abortion access. In this case, pregnant persons would insert the hanger’s wire into their cervix to perform the abortion. Macabre or grotesque as it sounds, a coat hanger operation, like other abortions performed in non-hospital settings, can endanger life.

What does a coat hanger symbolise?

The coat hanger serves as a symbol of the reproductive rights movement and a reminder of the gruesome pre-Roe era. It symbolises a desperate last resort for women who have been denied legal abortion services.

The coat hanger therefore points to a situation that many activists and experts warn about. Even when abortions are made illegal, they don’t stop. They continue, but in ways that pose a risk to women’s health and bodies, while also criminalising them.

How has a coat hanger been used as a protest tool?

The coat hanger, which is usually fashioned with wires, is a cheap and accessible object. This means that it can be widely and quickly used as a protest symbol. It was significantly used in April 1969, just years before the Roe v Wade verdict, in which 3 lakh protesters in Washington marched with coat hangers around their necks. They also held up signs that read: “Never Again”.

In 2016, protesters in Ohio decorated the statehouse fencing with coat hangers to oppose the Heartbeat Bill, which would outlaw abortion once a foetal heartbeat could be heard — at six weeks, before most people even discover they are pregnant — even though, at that point, Roe v Wade allowed up till viability, which was roughly 24 weeks.

In May, a college student bought a pack of six wire hangers on Amazon and shipped them to the Supreme Court. In a viral TikTok post, she encouraged others to do the same.

The coat hanger has seen resurgence in pro-choice protests, both on-ground and online. Whether as a quick scribble or an elaborate cartoon, the symbol has found new takers in recent days. Very often, pro-choice protest imagery shows Lady Liberty with the coat hanger in her hand instead of the scales — something that the late Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist Paul Conrad, a devout Catholic, drew back in 1988.

Conrad was critiquing anti-abortionists with this cartoon that ran with the caption: Alternative to Roe vs. Wade. Conrad had previously criticised then US President George HW Bush by depicting him holding a gun in one hand and a coat hanger in the other, meant to show his pro-gun and anti-abortion stance.

In 2012, Huffington Post employed the coat hanger on its website and Newsweek used a coat hanger cursor, after the Republican Party approved a convention platform plank opposing abortion in all cases.

However, some pro-choice activists and doctors advocate using less sensational imagery when it comes to fighting for reproductive rights. They believe that the coat hanger makes abortions seem unsafe and violent, which bolsters pro-life arguments and dissuades women from seeking abortions. They recommend using more empowering imagery to advocate abortions.

The DC Abortion Fund, a US-based non-profit group that helps local low-income women afford abortion care, used to give out silver coat hanger pendants to its monthly donors. “The coat hanger is a reminder of patient’s suffering when abortion is placed out of reach,” according to its website. In 2014, the gift was viciously attacked by conservative media in the US. “I honestly can’t believe that someone would celebrate the destruction of babies (boys, and YES millions of girls) as a fashion statement for feminists,” wrote Bristol Palin, a reality TV personality.

However, the coat hanger has been turned into pro-choice jewellery or accessories, such as pendants or badges, often. Some even get it tattooed as a reminder of protests for legal abortion rights.

Abortion has also been an important theme in feminist and political art. In some ways, it connects to the idea of fertility goddesses and mother figures, even if it seems to oppose them. For some, the coat hanger comes as a loaded metaphor.

“The Right to Choose” (2021), a print by Laia Abril and Carmen Winant, shows the coat hanger on one side and newspaper obituaries of feminists on the other. It was created in response to a Texas law banning most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.

In 2019, Los Angeles-based guerrilla street artist, who goes by the name Plastic Jesus, placed a set of wire coat hangers in pharmacies calling them “at-home abortion kits”. The kits came with QR codes and the copy: Perform an abortion from the comfort of your own home. Approved for use in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio, Utah. More states pending.”

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