Before, during, and after her testimony, Danielle Spry, 38, heard counter-protesters yelling abortion is murder. She remembers thinking, “You just don’t know.”
On Nov. 21, 2019, Spry made the difficult decision to terminate her pregnancy at 21 weeks and six days, after finding out her daughter had a congenital diaphragmatic hernia. Spry remembers picking out her daughter's urn even before the procedure took place.
“I felt like this was the kindest and most compassionate way to love her,” Spry said. She received a tattoo of her daughter's footprints on her forearm, carrying Charlotte's memory with her.
Spry makes dinner for her family, including her three boys and her husband. Even though her husband experienced this with her, Spry still feels isolated in her grief.
The fridge in Spry's kitchen shows the menu for dinner through the rest of the week and art projects from one of her sons. She is the mother of three boys, one six-year-old and two twin one-year-olds.
Spry keeps a Charlotte basket, filled with her sonograms, mementos, and sympathy cards. Before this experience, Spry was a nurse specializing in cardiac catheterization. After working with the nurses during the procedure, Spry became a labor and delivery nurse to help people experience the good and the bad times.
When the leaves start to change color in the fall, Spry often pulls out the basket and clutches some of the items to her chest. A friend gifted the bear to Spry from a company that hand-crochets bears for people who have lost their babies. She sometimes tell the bear, “I wish you were my daughter.”
When Indiana government officials met to discuss the future of abortion in Indiana, Spry told them about Charlotte.
Spry keeps Charlotte's urn, a gold bracelet with Charlotte's birthday engraved, and a photo of her holding her daughter together on her dresser. She held her daughter for half an hour.
31 year old Taylor Gardner sits in her classroom at a preschool in Indianapolis. After getting pregnant with an intrauterine device, Taylor received an abortion on May 10, 2023. Taylor already had two young children, and having a third child wasn't part of her plan.
“I would remind myself, ‘Hey. You didn’t do that. You didn’t bring a kid into the world,’” Gardner said. “Do you want to do it again? Can you do it again?” Her tattoo of blueberries are in memory of her grandmother as reminders of her humor and strength.
Gardner appreciates her tattoo of bees and flowers native to St. John in the Virgin Islands because it's the place where her heart is the happiest.
Gardner said this is her daughter's favorite tattoo, and she always asks her mom to show it to her friends when Gardner meets them.
Gardner pulls back her bracelets to show her violet tattoo. She received this tattoo as a "victory prize" from the tattoo artist after finishing a larger piece on her leg.
Student artwork from Gardner's students is taped around the room and strewn across drying racks. When she was young and her friends talked about what they wanted to do when they grew up, she remembers always wanting to be a mother.
“I think people get caught up in enjoying having babies at home, or the fun things of tiny humans, and trying to be good parents on the outside by societal standards and forget that at the end of the day you are also actually raising a person that is going to be an adult one day.” Gardner wears two necklaces: one with her initial and one with a star. One of her students made her the necklace with her initial.
Reverend Sarah Renfro sits in her office in Fishers, Indiana. She is the mother of a 13 year old daughter.
Renfro keeps magazine clippings and cards from her years as a professional model. She started modeling when she was 14, later moving to Los Angeles to further pursue her career.
Renfro looks at negatives from a headshot session from her years as a model. When she was 19, Renfro was on Accutane, an acne medication, and found out she was pregnant. Due to the severe birth defects caused by the medication, she had to receive an abortion.
Renfro points to important stickers and buttons she keeps on her stole, representing different social causes. At 27 when she was studying to become a minister, Renfro found out she was pregnant again and didn't feel that she could support a child and decided to receive an abortion.
Renfro keeps several stoles that are representative of different cultures and values. She attends gay Pride events and protests against Indiana legislation surrounding reproductive rights.
Renfro reads Mark 5:25 from the Bible, the story of Jesus healing the hemorrhaging woman. Renfro says, "It's healthcare. Jesus was a healer. Period."
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Taste of Bloomington
After six long years, Taste of Bloomington returns to the community this summer on August 2nd, with a variety of food and music from local vendors.
Fairywood Forest School
What if school took place completely outdoors? At Fairywood Forest School, young children cross a bridge into another world, where class time is spent outside. Students can make concoctions in the mud kitchen, paint at the easel, gather around a fire and tell stories, or explore the creek that winds through Fairywood. I spoke with Chris Barth, one of the instructors, about the benefits of forest schools for young children, and what a normal day at Fairywood looks like.
Starlite Theater
The drive-in theater seems like an antiquated idea. But at the Starlite Drive-In Theater in Bloomington, Indiana, history is not only preserved, but celebrated.