On the NYT Mag "Abortion by Mail" Cover

Of course, the design is superb. Form following function, right? But notably, this cover is more important than it is cool.  If we’re seeing the end of the physical abortion clinic and the surgical abortion, maybe that’s less the result of a reactionary knockout blow, as conventional wisdom and standard political scorekeeping would have us believe. Instead, what we could be looking at is just a more natural migration to a more efficient approach, the early-stage pharmacologically-induced miscarriage a function of empowerment and DYI, the internet age and the Amazon direct-ship model.

Given those factors, the significance of the new NYT Mag cover (if you read the article) is to simultaneously describe, announce and usher in the next incarnation, and a still greater degree of discretion and control for women over their reproductive destiny. To that extent, the cover is sending quite a statement.

(photo illustration: Johnny Miller for New York Times. Prop stylist: Randi Brookman Harris.)