In her Shoes Favorite 

‘In Her Shoes’ was a street exhibition of stories from women and men affected by the 8th Amendment of the Irish Constitution. These stories were selected from the ‘In Her Shoes’ project Facebook page. We hung copies of the stories on ribbon between trees and provided pens, paper and a seating area for people to sit down and write a response to the stories if they chose.

We wanted to bring these real stories of how the 8th ammendment has affected the lives of women and men. We wanted to provide space for people to engage with the stories privately and personally to reflect the complexity and reality that abortion is a deeply private and personal decision.

This project engaged the head by encouraging people to think about and reflect on the many ways the 8th Amendment affects women and men. It engaged their hearts by being stories of real lived experiences – often heartbreaking and difficult to read. It engaged the hand by inviting them reflect and consider what they would like to do as a result of reading them.

Although this regarded as an ‘Irish problem’, this is very much part of a global context of the rolling back of reproductive health care for woman globally. Not only are reproductive rights are a global issue and indeed as the ‘In Her Shoes’ stories show, the 8th Amendment affects women from all over the world living in Ireland, including asylum seekers in Direct Provision who cannot travel for abortion care.