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  • Essay / Abortion in Ireland

    The political issue explored in this engagement activity is the issue of abortion in Northern Ireland. I chose this issue of illegal abortion in Northern Ireland because the legalization of abortion is a topic that is talked about a lot, especially for women who experience the same problems. This raises questions about equal access to human rights and what the government can do about it. I also found it interesting that a country considers the human rights of an unborn child to be more important than those of an official citizen of the country. I found this interesting because the unborn child has no role in society, has no emotional connection to anyone, cannot think, speak or remember anything because he is a fetus and yet he is considered a person. It makes me wonder why the life of someone not yet born is put before women's choice to take it and why this law is the way it is. This problem goes back to the main topic: human rights. The problem with this situation is that every human being in this world is entitled to these rights and in the current situation in Northern Ireland not everyone is entitled to all the human rights that they should be entitled to. When you decide, as a country, to pass a law banning abortion, you find yourself in a difficult situation. Some people agree that you are taking away the human right to the life of the child in the womb and others think that you are taking away the human right to freely choose the woman who will bear the child. This is now the case in Ireland, where abortion is banned. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Abortion is made illegal by constitutional protection of the unborn child's right to life and by legalization. This implies that killing the baby in a woman's womb in Northern Ireland is a crime punishable by a severe prison sentence if passed. Only when the baby threatens the physical or mental health or well-being of the mother can the baby be removed. Many women disagree with this because they are carrying an unwanted baby, even if they are healthy, that cannot be legally removed. They think it goes beyond their human right to have their own choice. This law requires these women to travel to another country, mainly the United Kingdom, and have an abortion there. This costs a lot of money, which is not financed by the state but by the women themselves. How can we politically ensure that abortion is legal in Northern Ireland? This is the research question answered by the EEP. The answer to this question could solve the problem of women in Northern Ireland wanting to have a legal abortion law. The United Kingdom plans to finance abortion for women whose income is less than seventeen thousand euros. I think it's a good thing for the UK to do, but it's ridiculous for Northern Ireland to let it go so far that another country has to pay for its citizens because They do not respect fundamental human rights. This makes me wonder if their cultural/religious characteristics shaped abortion laws. If it had only been politically decided, they could have already changed the law, but the roots of this law probably go deeper. To get an answer to the research question, my partner in this engagement activity, Floris Timmer and I had to do many hours of research. on why abortion was illegal in Northern Ireland and the situation ingeneral. We learned that there would be a referendum in May 2018 on lifting the abortion ban. As an engagement activity, we came up with the idea of ​​putting together a campaign that convinces people to vote for the legalization of abortion. Men don't care as much about legalizing abortion because they don't go through the pain that pregnant women go through, so the main focus should be on women. So we have come to the conclusion that women must unite to obtain the majority of votes to legalize abortion. Launching a campaign to convince women to vote for the legalization of abortion in the referendum helps to raise the ban on abortion. If the ban has been lifted, our political problem no longer exists and is it politically resolved. We have encountered a few problems, the biggest being that we cannot travel to Ireland to organize a campaign there. As a solution, we had the idea of ​​doing a test campaign in Rotterdam and seeing if we got positive reactions. We have made all kinds of banners, big or small, with puns and facts. We went into town with friends who we asked for help and looked for a place in the Hoogstraat. We announced that there would be a referendum in Ireland on lifting the ban on abortion and that women must come together to get a majority of votes. We asked women if they were in the situation of having an unwanted child, but could not have an abortion and if they wanted to spend hundreds of euros on the abortion and the trip to another country. By far, most women said they supported women in Ireland and wanted the ban lifted. The ones who didn't change their mind after we told them this: what is it when a woman is raped or when the baby dies in the womb? , because in these situations, abortion is still illegal in Northern Ireland. We have received a lot of positive feedback from people who have brought attention to this issue. The law that declares abortion to be illegal by any means in Northern Ireland is made up of the Irish Constitution. The law is called the Eighth Amendment and recognizes the fact that the life of the fetus is just as important as the lives of pregnant women. Because of this amendment, it is impossible for a government to lift the ban on abortion. The Eighth Amendment was adopted on September 7, 1983, with 67% voting against abortion. In Northern Ireland, 83% of the population identified as Christian in 2011, and at that time it was probably even higher. Christians believe that all human beings are created in the eyes of God and therefore possess dignity and are entitled to human rights. Human rights are the rights to which every human being is entitled, regardless of gender, race, religion, language, nationality or other status. In the eyes of a Christian, a fetus is a human being and therefore entitled to these rights. In the 80s, the housewife stereotype was very common. Men went to work to provide food and money for the family while wives stayed at home to do household chores like cleaning, cooking, and caring for children. They didn't have much interest in politics and left that to their husbands. It was also more common to have multiple children, making abortion unnecessary. Because the majority of people believed that a fetus should have human rights and women were not as important in society at the time the Eighth Amendment was passed. Today, equality between.