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PrintTags: Savita Halappanavar, Indian woman in Ireland, Indian woman dies in Ireland, abortion law, anti-abortion law, no-abortion law, Catholic country, Catholic law, MEA, Ministry of External Affairs, Salman Khurshid, ireland, abortion, archaic abortion laws
People hold pictures of Savita Halappanavar during a candlelight vigil outside Belfast City Hall, Northern Ireland, on Thursday for Savita Halappanavar, the 31-year old Indian woman who was 17-weeks pregnant when she died of blood poisoning after suffering a miscarriage in Galway, Ireland, on October 28. ? ?? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? (AP Photo by Peter Morrison)
Even as the Ministry of External Affairs on Friday summoned Irish Ambassador Feilim McLaughlin over an Indian woman dying of blood poisoning in an Irish hospital after being denied abortion, global uproar and massive protests grew by the minute.
Savita Halappanavar, a dentist by profession, was denied termination of her pregnancy as per Ireland?s anti-abortion law, in spite of the doctors at the University Hospital Galway in the west of Ireland being well aware of her poor physical health. She died of blood poisoning on October 28, though the matter came to public attention much later. Her husband went public with the situation this week after taking his wife?s body back home to India for cremation.
According to reports, despite the increasing pain, doctors refused to terminate the pregnancy for three days because the foetus had a heartbeat. She died in the hospital from blood poisoning three days after the foetus died and was surgically removed. During the period between the child and the mother?s death, Savita was kept in high dependency unit and then later moved to the intensive care unit, where she died of septicaemia on October 28.
While her family blamed the country?s ?archaic abortion laws? for her death, massive protests broke out across Ireland, India as well as parts of the UK.
Protests began in Dublin on Wednesday. Thousands rallied outside Ireland?s Parliament, demanding that the stringent abortion rules be eased in view of the death of Savita?s death.
At least 2,000 people gathered for a candle-lit vigil to demand that the government legislate to close a legal loophole that leaves it unclear when the threat to the life of a pregnant woman provides legal justification for an abortion.
?My reaction was outrage. Shame that this happened in my country,? protester Emer McNally, 33, and six months pregnant, said. ?It?s scary to think that medical treatment was denied.?
The news of Halappanavar?s death overnight sparked a wave of anger on Irish social media, with more than 50,000 people sharing the Irish Times?s lead story on the issue on Wednesday.
The organisers of the Dublin protest said they expected a much larger crowd at a weekend demonstration and called on people to protest at Irish embassies around the world.
Prime Minister Enda Kenny?s Government now faces much criticism and pressure to introduce a legislation to redefine the abortion law. However, the PM refused to make any comment until the investigations into the death are completed.
?What happened to this woman was nothing short of medieval,? independent socialist MP Clare Daly said. ?We can?t let political cowardice kill another woman.?
The Irish Government has maintained that it is waiting for the recommendations of an expert panel, before it goes ahead with the European Court of Human Rights? demand for clarification. The panel?s report was delivered to the Government on Tuesday.
In the absence of legislation, Irish women are forced to leave their country to terminate their pregnancies, an option which Savita obviously did not have given her condition.
?It?s very frightening. It makes me feel it?s not a safe country in which to have a baby,? said Sinead O?Brien a 41-year-old holding a placard saying ?Never Again?.
With a global outrage over the incident and political parties terming it as a violation of human rights, Savita?s parents called for an international probe.
Meanwhile in India, the Delhi Catholic Archdiocese said the mother?s life should not have been risked even though abortion was a complete no for the ?Catholic? country.
Massive protests were also witnessed in New Delhi, with people taking out rallies with placards, shouting slogans against ?the murder? by ?Irish laws?.
While activists protested across Belfast on Thursday night, a day after thousands rallied in London, Dublin, Cork and Galway in memory of Savita, Irish gynecologists also pushed for a proper legislation in this connection, so that they won?t have to fear prosecution if they aborted a foetus to protect a mother?s life. Ironically,
?We would like to be able to practice medicine in a safe environment legally. The current situation is like a sword of Damocles hanging over us,? Dr Peter Boylan of the Irish Institute of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said Thursday. ?If we do something with a good intention, but it turns out to be illegal, the consequences are extremely serious for medical practitioners.?
However, anti-abortion activists and writers have argued that the case was an aberration from Irish law, not an example of it.
?Normal medical practice in Ireland was not followed after a grossly misplaced application to her case ? of a heretical misreading of Catholic moral law,? William Oddie wrote in UK-based Catholic Herald. ?These tragic deaths cannot justify the replacement of the world?s most civilized abortion law by the pro-death laws now almost universal throughout Europe.?
Apart from the MEA summoning the Irish Ambassador, the Indian Government has also taken up the issue directly to the Irish Government with the Indian ambassador meeting authorities in Dublin. Meanwhile, ?the National Commission for Women on Friday said it would take up with the External Affairs Ministry the death of the Indian dentist Savita Halappanavar in Ireland after doctors allegedly refused to terminate her 17-week pregnancy on the ground that it was a ?Catholic country?.
?The Indian Government should take action and I will take it up with the External Affairs Ministry on Monday that the Irish Government eases the strict abortion rules on humanitarian grounds,? NCW chairperson Mamata Sharma said in Shillong.
Ireland had ordered two probes into the incident, one by the hospital itself, while the other was by the Government.
The grief-stricken parents of the 31-year old dentist,. Andaneppa Yalagi and Mahadevi Yalagi, have appealed the Indian Government to push for an amendment of Irish law banning abortions. ?The Irish law on abortion should be amended to prevent incidents such as my daughter?s death from occurring in future,? they said.
?In an attempt to save a 4-month-old foetus they killed my 31-year-old daughter. How is that fair, you tell me?? her mother, A Mahadevi, asked while speaking to the media in India.
Savita?s father said if hospital authorities had heeded to his daughter?s request to terminate the pregnancy she would have survived. He claimed Savita?s kidney and liver was damaged due to inadequate care taken by hospital authorities. Andaneppa said having been told she was miscarrying, and after one day in severe pain, Savita asked for a medical termination. This was refused, he said, because the foetal heartbeat was still present and my relatives were told (by doctors) ?this is a Catholic country?.
Abortion remains an extremely divisive issue in Ireland, an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country which has some of the world?s most restrictive laws on medical terminations.
Despite a dramatic waning of the influence of the Catholic Church, which dominated politics in the country until the 1980s, successive governments have been loathe to legislate on an issue they fear could alienate conservative voters.
After several challenges, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2010 that Ireland must clarify its position.
In a report published The Telegraph, a suicidal 14-year-old Irish girl, identified only as ?X?, had sued the Irish Government after she was denied termination of her pregnancy in 1992, after being raped by a neighbour. Then the Ireland?s Supreme Court had stated that abortion was permissible in cases of a ?real and substantive risk? to the mother?s life.
However, the earlier constitutional amendment, banning abortion still remains in place, leaving medical professionals to navigate a legal minefield when treating pregnant women.
Admitting that he is aware of the Irish law against abortion, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid on Friday said, ?The issue is very complex. The law is there in the constitution, but how the constitution is interpreted is a matter of concern. When the health of a mother is in danger, how the law should be interpreted is what we will be talking about,? he added while talking to the media.
Incidentally, an autopsy, carried out two days after her death, revealed that she died of septicaemia ?documented ante-mortem? and E. coli ESBL. Irish authorities have launched a probe into the death of Savita.
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