You are warmly invited to attend the launch event for this unique exhibition which brings a range of abortion experiences to life, representing just some of the nearly 200,000 abortions that take place in the UK every year.

Hosted by Ulster University, School of Applied Social and Policy Sciences, in collaboration with the Open University and Alliance for Choice, the exhibition challenges the lingering stigma and silence around the subject.

Although one in three UK women will have an abortion during their lifetime, terminating a pregnancy remains controversial and stigmatised. Many women and pregnant people who have an abortion will internalise that stigma, and experience isolation and shame as a result, and this may explain some of the negative aspects of abortion experiences, such as why some wish to conceal it.

‘My Body My Life’ is a public engagement project that seeks to this stigma around abortion by bringing real stories of abortion into the open. These stories show how easily an unplanned pregnancy can become part of women’s lives, how different abortion seekers have made their decision about having an abortion, and what the process was like for them. Our hope is that by creating a space in which people can share their stories, the project will contribute to opening up conversations about real experiences of abortion – positive and negative – to enable us all to speak, to listen, and to understand without judgment.

The exhibition was developed in collaboration with a multi-disciplinary team (medicine, law, sociology, social policy) from six institutions (Ulster, the Open University, Edinburgh University, University of Glasgow, University of Oxford, and University College London). Project partners include: BPAS, Pubic Health England, the Family Planning Association, Brook and Alliance for Choice.

project website http://mybody-mylife.org/

@mybody_mylife

The exhbition will be open from 6th - 9th December (10am-6pm) late night Thursday 7th til 9.30pm