Project Mapping the Battlefield

Studio Jayne

Studio Jayne showcases the documentary and design practice of Meghan Stemp, examining the systems that shape abortion access and reproductive life in post-Roe America.

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Mapping the Battlefield

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This project visualises how policy reshapes the geography of abortion access through a series of six cut-out maps of the United States. Using data from the Guttmacher Institute (October 2025), I created sequential maps that show where abortion is legal and how it changes throughout the stages of a pregnancy, starting with total bans to states with no gestational limits.

Each map removes (or “cuts out”) states according to thresholds:

Total bans
6-week bans
12-week bans
18–23-week bans
24–26-week bans (viability)
States with full access to abortion

As more states disappear, the negative space grows, revealing the spatial magnitude of restriction and how legality becomes lived geography.

I photographed the maps at Monocacy National Battlefield in Maryland, using the historic landscape of the Civil War to underscore the cultural language of “battlegrounds” that often surrounds abortion politics. The maps aim to transform policy into spatial form, showing the magnitude of erasure and the emerging “healthcare borders” that redefine access to care.