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 much discussed topic, especially for women who suffer from the same problems. It raises questions about equal access to human rights and what the government can do about it. I also thought it was interesting that a country deems the human rights of an unborn child to be more important than those of an official citizen of the country. I thought it was interesting, because the unborn child has no role in society, has no emotional ties to anyone, cannot think, speak or remember anything because it is a fetus and yet it is seen as a person. This leads me to wonder why the life of someone who has not yet been born is put before women's choice to remove it and what caused this law to be the way it is. This issue ties back to the main course: human rights. The issue relates to this course because 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 introduce the law that abortion is not legal, you find yourself in a difficult situation. Some people agree that it takes away the human right to life of the child in the womb of women and others think that it takes away the human right to have their own choice of women who give birth to 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 Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an 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 the womb of women in Northern Ireland is a crime which, if exceeded, carries serious prison sentences. Only when the child threatens the mother's physical or mental health or well-being can the child be removed. Many women do not agree with this, because they are carrying an unwanted child, even if healthy, who cannot be legally removed. They think this is beyond their human right to have their own choice. This law means that these women have to travel to another country, in this case mainly the UK, and have an abortion there. This costs a lot of money which is not financed by the state, but by the women themselves. What can be done politically to make abortion legal in Northern Ireland? This is the research question that is answered throughout the PEA. The answer to this question could solve the problem for women in Northern Ireland who want to have a legal abortion law. The United Kingdom plans to finance abortion for women who have an income of less than seventeen thousand euros. I think it's a good thing on the UK's part, but it's ridiculous on the part of Northern Ireland to let another country have to pay for its citizens because they don't respect basic human rights. This makes me wonder if their cultural/religious characteristics influenced abortion laws. If it had been decided only politically they could have already changed the law, but the roots of this law are probably 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 into why abortion was illegal in Northern Ireland in the first place and the situation in general. We found out that a referendum on lifting the abortion ban will be held in May-June 2018. As an activity ofinvolvement, we came up with the idea of ​​organizing a campaign that convinces people to vote for the legalization of abortion. Men don't care so much about the legalization of abortion, because they can't stand the pain that pregnant women feel, so the main focus should be on women. So we came to the conclusion that women must unite to get a majority of votes to legalize abortion. Organizing a campaign to convince women to vote for the legalization of abortion in the referendum helps lift the abortion ban. If the ban has been lifted, our political issue no longer exists and this will be politically resolved. There were some problems that we encountered and the biggest one was that we couldn't travel to Ireland to organize a campaign over there. As a solution we came up with the idea of ​​doing a test campaign in Rotterdam and seeing if we got positive reactions. We have made all types of banners, from large to small, with plays on words and facts. We went to the city with some friends who we asked for help and looked for a place on the Hoogstraat. We announced that a referendum on lifting the abortion ban would be held in Ireland and that women would have to unite to get a majority of the 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 plus travel to another country. Most women said they supported women in Ireland and wanted the ban to be lifted and those who didn't changed their minds after we told them this: what is a woman when she is raped or when the baby dies in the womb maternal , because in these situations abortion is still illegal in Northern Ireland. We have received a lot of positive reactions from people for bringing attention to this issue. The law which states that abortion is illegal in any case in Northern Ireland is formed by the Irish Constitution. The law is called the Eighth Amendment and recognizes the fact that the life of a fetus is just as important as the life of pregnant women. Because of this amendment, it is impossible for any government to lift the abortion ban. The Eighth Amendment passed on September 7, 1983 with 67% of voters opposed to abortion. In Northern Ireland, in 2011, 83% of the population declared themselves Christian and at that time it was probably even more. Christians believe that all human beings are made 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 sex, race, religion, language, nationality and other status. In the eyes of the Christian, the fetus is a human being, therefore entitled to these rights. Around the 1980s the stereotype of the housewife was very widespread. Men went to work to provide food and money for the family while wives stayed at home to do household chores such as cleaning, cooking and taking care of children. They didn't have much interest in politics and left this to their husbands. It was also more common to have multiple children, which would make abortion unnecessary. Because most people believed that a fetus should have human rights and that women were not that important in society before the passage of the Eighth Amendment. Nowadays, equality between men and women is completely normal. Both men and women go to work and the voting percentage is more or less the same. That is why the topic of lifting the abortion ban is currently very popular. Women do not want their human rights to be taken away. They don't want a law that decides what women do.