Northern Ireland (UK) now legalizes abortions and same sex marriage

CNN

Excerpt

London (CNN)At the stroke of midnight on Monday, Northern Ireland's restrictive abortion and same-sex marriage laws came to an end, after the region failed to restore its power-sharing executive that collapsed more than 1,000 days ago.

The changes were imposed by lawmakers in Westminster, who had given Northern Ireland a deadline until October 21 to restore its assembly at Stormont or have the laws changed directly from London.Despite the Stormont assembly meeting on Monday morning for the first time in three years, it was unable to prevent the amendments that meant same-sex marriage would be legalized and abortion would be decriminalized in the province.

Campaigners on both sides of the debate gathered outside Northern Ireland's parliament building in Stormont on Monday, ahead of momentous reforms to some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the world. Many campaigners posted videos on social media of the countdown to midnight.One of them, 24-year-old Alisha Rooney told CNN: "I am thrilled that finally my friends and colleagues can marry without it being a crime in this country."I am thrilled that women now have the choice with what they can do with their own bodies."

Another campaigner, 20-year-old Jamie Kennedy, told CNN, "we tend to have a bad reputation for being 'stuck in the dark ages' when it comes to equality and rights but we've now shown we value our LGBTQ community as equals and we value the choices that (often in tragic circumstances) pregnant people have to make regarding their reproductive health. I've never felt prouder to say I'm Northern Irish."

People gathered at the Maverick bar in Belfast to celebrate and the atmosphere was joyful, according to locals."There were people who didn't know each other but were talking to each other, hugging each other, singing together and dancing together. There was a countdown to midnight when the laws came in and the eruption of cheer and applause was bigger than any New Year's party I've been to," Ciaran Gallagher, 30, told CNN.Less pleased was Northern Ireland's Democratic Union Party leader, Arlene Foster, who after the leaving the chamber said, "it is a very sad day," according to Reuters."I know some people will seek to celebrate and I would say to those people, think of us who are sad today and who believe this is an affront to human dignity."

Now the ENTIRE Island has them legalized, with the ROI legalizing same sex marriage back in 2015 and abortions last year. And Northern Ireland gets them both down. Great news all the way.

Now, looking to MY OWN country on abortions.

Good, good.

October the 21st we moved a little closer to an ideal world.

Same sex marriage, good move. Killing babies, yippie lets all applaud that, its fun ripping them apart.

Sad. More babies killed.

Yup.

Women's body, their choice.

So this is a good call.

As to the marriage, well marriage should never have been a concern of the state, what two consenting adults do is their business.

While I take issue to you framing the legalization of abortion as "babies killed", this is not necessarily true. The women who want an abortion in Northern Ireland can now do it in their home country, rather than having to go south to Ireland or to England. They were always going to get one.

It's not my business so I'm really not to passionate about either of these issues. But I always found it odd of those who celebrated it. Unless you were gay and desperately want to get married I'm not sure why it matters. As for abortions you have a place like Ireland struggling to maintain their population so perhaps abortion shouldn't be their priority. Maybe give tax breaks to native born citizens who want to raise families?

@r-gamer: So because I'm not gay, I shouldn't really care about equality for those that are different?

Finally the far right lost out, took too long tho.

@leicam6: They are killing babies. Abortion kills babies. I'm not going to sugar coat it.

You are not sugar coating anything, you are just wrong, on several levels.

By legal definition, no, abortion does not kill babies. Killing babies is infanticide and illegal everywhere. The scientific definition of abortion is removing an embryo or fetus from the womb of a mother before said embryo or fetus is able to survive outside the womb. Neither an embryo nor a fetus is a baby, legally and scientifically. An embryo or fetus may become a baby some undetermined time in the future, but so can an egg and sperm. Yet you arbitrarily decide to place more value on one bundle of cells versus another.

The phrase pro-life is a misnomer anyway. A woman is much more likely to die during childbirth than an abortion.

Seriously dude you're not correct either. Legalities are of course based on opinion in this case as to what is considered life. Some people believe it starts at conception. He's entitled to his opinion and you cannot tell him he's wrong. But getting hung up on legality does not change his opinion as to when life starts.

Also your last sentences is just plan silly.

Science isn't opinion. It's not a baby until it can exist independently of the mother. This is true because of stacks of academic and medical literature on the subject. His personal view of when life begins is fine, however, it has 0 to do with the legal status of abortion. Because it was evident from his post that he implied it should be illegal. If he doesn't want to get an abortion for his own personal reasons, that is one thing, but it's no justification that everyone should be barred from one.

Also, I can tell him he's wrong, just like he thinks I'm wrong, because this is a forum and discussion is the entire reason as to why we are here.

And no, it's definitely not silly.

CONCLUSION: Legal induced abortion is markedly safer than childbirth. The risk of death associated with childbirth is approximately 14 times higher than that with abortion. Similarly, the overall morbidity associated with childbirth exceeds that with abortion.

Link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22270271

That's an opinion. It's semantics.

@plageus900: The passion that some seem to have for the issue is odd for me. Perhaps they don't have much going on in their own lives? And in most cases it doesn't stop at equality.

Thanks for the contribution to this spirited discussion.

Well you have an opinion and so does he. He's entitled to his opinion and you were wrong to jump on him. Deal with it

I haven't stated my opinion on whether or not I think abortion is good or bad.

Maybe he shouldn't use such toxic rhetoric only used by far-right provocateurs like "killing babies" if he wants a more respectful tone.

You know you don't have to come and say this is my opinion for people to see what your opinion is dude.

I place value on all life. All life deserves protecting. Protect the mother and the baby.

And ya, you're last sentence is hilarious.

I think this a step in a better direction. I'm pro-choice in the first three months, and only in dangerous situations for the mother past that. I was shocked to read that a woman was denied an abortion after she had a miscarriage, and she later died from septic miscarriage. That was in 2012 but I think the laws are better in Ireland now than they were then.

@Chutebox: You think it's hilarious that women die in childbirth? Wow.

Wow, very surprising. I've always thought of Ireland as a very conservative, or at least religious, place. Guess the new generation is getting out there and making change.

Yyyup! Hooray for progress and equality.

For those of you arguing about abortion: if you're male, you shouldn't be arguing that much. State your opinion but honestly it is not up to us in the end, just vote how you want or in support of the women in your life. Arguing over it is pointless [as a dude]

Good for them. Both should be legal.

I'm completely for abortion being legal. I believe the rights of the mother outweigh the rights of the fetus. That's my personal opinion, and I'm big on personal liberties and freedoms. However, I can totally understand why pro-lifers are very anti-abortion. If you believe that life begins at conception or even in the first several months, then I get your stance.

What I absolutely can't stand, is these jackass people that say, a fetus is nothing. It's just a collection of cells and it's not life or nothing to be concerned about. I had a friend that got pregnant by some asshole. That guy was totally crazy and she decided she did not want to have the baby. She went to have an abortion and asked me to come because she was upset and scared. So I did, and while I dont like abortion, I wasn't there to judge her, but just support her. It was a terrible experience for her - it was devastating and full of guilt and other emotions. I can't imagine one of you assholes, trying to comfort her by telling her, it's just a clump of cells, you're all good. While I think she made the right call, I can understand her feelings of regret and guilt.

It seems that Ireland has now lost its Catholic predominance and now become pagan in selling its soul to Satan.

https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2019/10/21/abortion-legalized-in-n-ireland-after-deadlock-in-devolved-legislature/

Abortion should be legal, safe, and very rare.

End discussion

Well, here's a response from the Vatican:

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2019-10/northern-ireland-catholic-bishops-legalization-abortion-tragic.html

Lol satan...
christianity borrowed a lot of ideas from paganism.

Ain't it great that in the 21st century people still believe in an invisible red guy with horns that makes you do bad things?

Quite funny and disturbing at the same time.
But what about all the other mythological characters though like Hermes or Zeus, they don't get mentioned at all anymore...

I say we go back to ripping hearts out. Now that's dedication.

That is because zeus is one of the few demons we know are dead. We even celebrate the day with Hanukuh.

EDIT this is one of the most absurdly buggy posting interfaces I have ever had to deal with.

@nigelteapot: Bit of a necro thread.