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One day in 2018 I found myself in a Planned Parenthood clinic in New York City waiting for abortion pills and, as an artist, visualisations preoccupied my mind. I kept wondering: how could the stories of the individuals in this waiting room be heard and translated through sculpture?

Three years later, while isolated during the pandemic and with time to reflect on my own past medical interventionsincluding the abortionas a catalyst, I began acting on my vision for an art series titled As I Sit Waiting by scouring social media for individuals willing to share their stories. I talked with people on Zoom, listening to their personal experiences with abortion access. To date I have produced 18 short documentaries and created sculptures to reflect each persons story. The series covers experiences across 12 states and is ongoing.

Amid the onslaught of censorship in US schools, As I Sit Waiting unexpectedly made national headlines last month. Just two days before the opening of the exhibition Unconditional Care: Listening to Peoples Health Needs at Lewis-Clark State College in Idaho, I was informed that four pieces from my series would be removed.

My work has been exhibited in museums and galleries like the Brooklyn Museum, Lyman Allyn Museum, Latchkey Gallery and Lump Gallery, and been supported by residencies like Pink Noise Projects and Field Projects. It is currently financially supported by the New York Foundation for the Arts.

The college claimed my art violated Idahos No Public Funds for Abortion Act (NPFAA), which prohibits the use of public funds for abortion, including speech that may promote or counsel in favour of abortion. The college also pulled works created by Katrina Majkut and Michelle Hartney for referencing abortion. But our work is not promoting or counseling in favour of abortion. It is simply reflecting the stories of those who have accessed abortion in this country.

Unconditional Care was guest-curated by Majkut at the colleges Center for Arts and History and takes an unbiased, educational approach to important health issues such as chronic illness, disability, pregnancy, gun deaths and sexual assault. For months, Majkut and I had been working together to select which documentaries from my series would be included in the show.

Installation view of Unconditional Care: Listening to People's Health Needs at the Lewis-Clark State College Center for Arts and History Courtesy Katrina Majkut

The documentaries we chose for the show included one about Cat, who was forced by state law in Michigan to keep her pregnancy at only 17 years old in 2007. In the midst of severe postpartum depression and hallucinations, she brought her baby to the hospital for adoption.

Another subject was Blair, who was so happy to be pregnant with twins. When she found out one of the fetuses wasnt viable, she was devastated. Through a needle inserted into her abdomen, the doctor terminated one of the fetuses, so that the life of the other could come into existence. Blair watched the scar from the needle expand, as the other fetus grew. For Blairs sculpture, I found a high chair whose protruding tray reminded me of a pregnant belly. I cut the tray in half and stretched the high chair with fabricspleather, jersey, velvet. The pleather was cinched into the cutout, creating depth in honour of Blairs scar.

A third woman, DeZah, 25, was a single mother of two kids when she realised she was pregnant. The ultrasound revealed it was twins and she second-guessed her decision. The financial reality of her family expanding from two to four children was not realistic. The sculpture in honour of DeZah has two carved-out half domes, which both represent the twin fetuses and celebrate her two children. If DeZah became pregnant now, Georgias six-week ban would prevent her from obtaining an abortion. In Idaho, she would have had no option other than to raise four children below the poverty line.

Believing Lewis-Clark State College had violated my First Amendment rights, I sought help from organisations including the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Coalition Against Censorship. Together, these groups wrote a letter to the colleges leaders urging them to reverse their decision. They did not. Additional advocacy came from PEN America and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. The colleges leadership never responded.

Art censorship has a long history, with prominent artists like Dread Scott, Betty Tompkins, Adrian Piper and Aliza Shvarts all having their works removed. This type of censorship not only deprives individuals of their fundamental right to free expression, but also hinders creative and intellectual exploration. Currently, US lawmakers are considering a national ban on TikTok, marking a potential new era of internet censorship. My own art content on TikTok has been viewed by over 9.8 million people.

As I Sit Waiting shows that abortion access is not a monolithic story. It is unique to every person. As an artist, I strive to represent these stories with integrity, transparency and respect for diverse experiences. I demand the same of the galleries and museums that show my work. I thought that Lewis-Clark State College stood for education, learning and inquisitive conversation, but I was wrong. The censorship of my work by the college represents an overreaching and broad interpretation of the NPFAA.

The censorship has only fueled my passion to use art to uplift individuals abortion stories and amplify barriers to abortion access. I am more motivated than ever to continue honoring abortion stories through sculpture and film.

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An Idaho college removed my abortion-related art, strengthening my ... - Art Newspaper

Paul F. deLespinasse| The Daily Telegram

When people can't find a good argument for something, their only alternatives are to use a bad argument or claim there is no need for one.

During the summers of 1960 and 1961, I interned in the Oregon State Public Welfare Commission's headquarters.

In 1960, the headquarters were in Portland. But Gov. Mark Hatfield proposed moving it to Salem, the state capital, 60 miles south. This upset headquarters employees. Salem was too far to commute, and they hated the idea of moving.

My supervisor had me survey our employees to see what they would do if the commission got moved. Many said they would resign.

We reported details to Gov. Hatfield. He responded that he was pleased that the employees who really counted were willing to move!

Portland's newspapers complained that it was crazy to move the commission, since most Oregon wefare recipients lived in or near Portland Oregon's largest metropolitan area.

This was a plausible argument, but it was a bad one. The commission headquarters had no contact with welfare recipients. Offices in each Oregon country had all actual contact with welfare recipients. Our headquarters just provided centralized administrative services for the county offices.

There weren't any good arguments against the move, except inconvenience for the welfare bureaucrats. The governor had argued, not unreasonably, that having the commision in the capital would make it easier to supervise and coordinate with other state agencies.

Hatfield moved us to Salem in 1961. Many of the workers changed their minds and continued working for the commission.

The Supreme Court supplies mysecond exampleof an inability to find a good argument. The court has generally been happy to support its decisions with bad arguments when it can't find good ones. But it refused to give any arguments at all in upholding the World War I military draft against claims that it was "involuntary servitude," which it clearly was if those words have any meaning:

"Finally, as we are unable to conceive upon what theory the exaction by government from the citizen of the performance of his supreme and noble duty of contributing to the defense of the rights and honor of the nation, as the result of a war declared by the great representative body of the people, can be said to be the imposition of involuntary servitude in violation of the prohibitions of the Thirteenth Amendment, we are constrained to the conclusion that the contention to that effect is refuted by its mere statement."

It couldn't even find a bad argument!

A recent example of a bad argument was contributed by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. Objecting to DirecTV's decision (later reversed) to discontinue carrying a particular station, Cruz called it "corporate censorship."

Of course censorship is bad, and the First Amendment wisely prohibits it: "Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press."

But the First Amendment does not restrict the right ofprivatepersons or corporations to refuse to publish or broadcast particular material.

As a Harvard Law School graduate, Cruz must understand that the First Amendment's "freedom of the press" actuallyprotectsthe right of private organizations to refuse to publish or broadcast certain material. That is essentially an editorial decision not carrying the weight of governmental censorship.

If a newspaper refuses to publish something that I have written, I can submit it to other newspapers and other editors remain free to publish it. The TV station discontinued by the satellite company was still carried by cable companies and was also available over the Internet.

Governmental censorship like that in today's Russia, on the other hand, threatensanybodywho publishes the forbiden material with sanctions.

Sen. Cruz's complaint about "corporate censorship" is a good example of using a bad argument when you can't find a good one. But he must have known better.

Paul F. deLespinasse is a retired professor of political science and computer science at Adrian College. He can be reached at pdeles@proaxis.com.

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Paul deLespinasse: Bad arguments attractive when good ones ... - The Daily Telegram

French President Emmanuel Macrons office forced Politico to remove some of Macrons comments on Taiwan from an interview published on Sundayafter the outlet agreed to let his team review comments before publication. As is common in France and many other European countries, the French Presidents office, known as the Elyse Palace, insisted on checking and proofreading all the presidents quotes to be published in this article as a condition of granting the interview. This violates POLITICOs editorial standards and policy, but we agreed to the terms in order to speak directly with the French president, a note at the bottom of the article said. It said some of Macrons views on Taiwan and Europes strategic autonomy were nixed. The story, published Sunday following Macrons visit to China, discussed Frances reluctance to intercede in brewing tensions over Taiwan. Politico had no further comment to The Daily Beast beyond the note affixed to the story.

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Macron's Office Censors Taiwan Comments in Politico Interview - The Daily Beast

Michael Tierney of The Comic Book Store in Maumelle, Arkansas has been following the progress of Arkansas Senate Bill 81 2023, and reports that it has been passed into law and forwarded to the Governor's desk to be signed into law.

When I was in Washington DC at the end of March for the National League of Cities as part of the Arkansas delegation (I'm on the Maumelle City Council), I did have a chance to ask Arkansas congressman French Hill about the Act. His advice was to do what I've already been doing.

But emails to legislators and voicing concerns on social media had no effect.

What I was afraid would happen has happened.

While I find no fault with the intent to protect children from harm, doing so with a retroactive determination that hands down felony charges based on a system of consumer complaints ratified by the decisions of an advisory board is not the way to do it. The language of what is considered harmful should never be considered a fluid thing, which is intent of SB 81.

As you might remember, I was on the front lines of this battle a little over 20 years ago when the Arkansas Legislature rewrote the Arkansas Display Act to include retroactive determinations of obscenity violations. This rewrite was determined by the Attorney General to be unenforceable after it was already signed into law. So I've watched this type of legislation very closely since that time and have noticed a distinct pattern in how it pops up around the country on a regular basis. There was an episode of the television show, Law & Order, where actress Angie Harmon stated that, "The Supreme Court determined that the definition of obscenity can be determined on a local level," and every time that show has aired some legislator somewhere in the country tried to write a law to do just that.

Here we go again.

Once more it is the store clerk and the librarian caught in the cross hairs of the battle to determine to what is considered obscene, with the publishers and creators completely insulated from any repercussions should they include content without notice. The reason I point this is because of a recent discovery I made while writing a chapter on the Dark Horse Comics series Conan and The Songs of the Dead in my Robert E. Howard 100 Year Catalog Art Chronology. I had carried this series in my stores, both of which were located in areas zoned where it was illegal to carry any content that might be considered pornographic because of my close proximity to schools and churches. When it came time to review the series I was dismayed to discover that the series not only contained the image of a fully erect penis (on a statue), that is broken off and worn around the neck by Conan, who used it to open a door lock distinctly drawn in the shape of a vagina, and later on a lock shaped like skull by inserting it into the skulls mouth.

Since Dark Horse has never offered content guidelines on their books, as a matter of rule I treated their entire line as matureand this saved me from potentially losing my life's work and reputation over something that I did not know about it. The excesses in that series went beyond what any legal body might consider as simply being "mature." Retailers dont have time to read every page of every book, and copies of this particular series are all across the country, hiding in the cheap bins like ticking bombs waiting to explode in the wrong hands. Most retailers have no idea of the risk they are being exposed to.

That is the core of my concern about SB 81, is that someone could go to jail over something they had no idea about.

It could have easily happened to me.

The opinions expressed in this Talk Back are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.

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Michael Tierney of The Comic Book Store on Censorship Board Waiting for Governor's Signature - ICv2

KING WILLIAM A group of King William County citizens is calling on the Pamunkey Regional Library system to restrict childrens access to books the group considers explicit, saying they will seek to defund the entire system if the library does not comply.

The system runs libraries in the counties of Hanover, Goochland, King and Queen and King William and the town of West Point.

At the March 27 meeting of the King William Board of Supervisors, library Director Tom Shepley said restricting access to books was contrary to First Amendment rights.

During public comments, resident Sharon Landrum spoke of the brokenness of Pamunkey Regional Library system and called for a labeling and sequestering policy for sexually explicit material for children.

She questioned the countys annual contribution of more than $600,000 in fiscal year 2024 to the library system.

Another resident, Elaine Daniel, spoke of Me, Earl and The Dying Girl, a young-adult novel available in the library. She spoke of the rise in mental illness among teens and said the books characters are neurotic and nihilistic and focused on destruction.

Banned books are visible at the Central Library, a branch of the Brooklyn Public Library system, in New York City on Thursday, July 7, 2022. The books are banned in several public schools and libraries in the U.S., but young people can read digital versions from anywhere through the library. The Brooklyn Public Library offers free membership to anyone in the U.S. aged 13 to 21 who wants to check out and read books digitally in response to the nationwide wave of book censorship and restrictions. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey) (Ted Shaffrey/AP)

The novel, by Jesse Andrews, was released in 2012 and tells the story of two troubled teenage boys who become friends with a girl who has terminal cancer. It has faced frequent challenges in recent years from people who disapprove of the story.

Why would we offer such a book as this? We dont want to ban it but we dont want to buy books that have no good purpose, Landrum said.

Rose Marie Berberich spoke of a sex scene between minors in Looking for Alaska by John Green, a coming-of-age novel she branded obscene.

We as a public library system must hold ourselves to a standard of decency and appropriateness for all. This book should be labeled and placed in a separate area in the library due to the profanity and sexually explicit theme, said Berberich.

She called for the supervisors to defund the Pamunkey Regional Library until changes are made.

Resident Rose Bloomfield referred to Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo as pornographic literature. The novel won the National Book Award in 2021 for Young Peoples Literature, the first time a young adult book featuring an LGBT woman as the main character won a National Book Award.

This book is for young adults this should not be put on any kind of shelving that doesnt have a disclaimer, doesnt have a red x in front of it, she said.

Bloomfield, referencing Lady Chatterleys Lover by D.H. Lawrence, said most of the world banned such books at the time.

I dont know how we strayed so far from the banning but Id like to see it come back again, she said.

Lady Chatterleys Lover, about an upper-class woman who has an affair with a working-class man, was banned in the United States in 1929 but the ban was lifted in 1959. Bans in Europe were also overturned and Penguin Books won a landmark obscenity trial in the United Kingdom in 1960.

Shepley acknowledged that the library system has faced calls at board of trustees and other meetings to create a ratings system for books. He said no system exists at present.

Weve got over 200,000 books, he said.

The problem for us as a public library with that is the standard for making that determination in the United States with the First Amendment really rests with you, or I, or any other reader.

Shepley said, while he could determine whether a book was suitable for his children, he would struggle to make a determination for another child.

You know you children better than I do and youre the one responsible for them, he said.

Supervisor Stewart Garber asked if books that were the subject of complaints remained on the shelves. Shepley confirmed they are still in the libraries.

We are talking about young children. Well below the age. I dont even know whether the First Amendment applies to them but but theres a right and wrong here, said Garber.

Shepley said the library does have a formal reconsideration process after complaints but the books would likely stay. He said five books have been the subject of specific complaints, and that moving them could be considered a First Amendment issue.

Many of these have been on the shelves for years, but you are hearing people complain about them now, Shepley said. He said a public library is part of the government and it does not have the right to censor materials. Shepley suggested parents control their childrens access to materials they check out on a library card.

The folks that we are hearing from are trying to limit access to other people and thats where it becomes censorship, Shepley said.

No action on the issue was taken at the March 27 meeting. Supervisor Travis Moskalski, referring to it as a very highly charged issue, said it requires more consideration.

David Macaulay, davidmacaulayva@gmail.com

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King William group pushes to censor books in public library, calls on board to defund library system - Daily Press