Catholic Country Let's Woman Die

A women who sought an abortion at a hospital in Ireland while suffering a miscarriage has died. Savita Halappanavar, 31 years old and 17 weeks pregnant, presented with back pain at Ireland's University Hospital Galway on October 21st- they discovered that she was in the process of miscarrying.

Even though Halappanavar, a Hindu, was emphatic that she was neither Irish nor Catholic, and even though she developed shakes and shivering and was vomiting, the hospital said there was nothing to be done because there was still a fetal heartbeat. She was told that "this is a catholic country."

Boston.com reports that Ireland’s constitution officially bans abortion, but a 1992 Supreme Court ruling found the procedure should be legalized for situations when the woman’s life is at risk. Five governments since have refused to pass a law resolving the confusion, leaving Irish hospitals reluctant to terminate pregnancies even when possibly endangering the life of the mother.

The delay in enacting this law in Ireland has cost Halappanavar her life. While some women in Ireland have the option to travel the relatively short distance to England for a legal abortion- it is extremely difficult for women in poor health to do the same.

This article from the Guardian examines the troubled history of abortion in Ireland:

"The first breach in the wall of silence around abortion came about in 1992 when a 14-year-old rape victim attempted to travel to England to terminate her pregnancy. The Irish government, on the advice of the attorney general, sought initially to prevent her from travelling out of the country. The prospect of a modern European republic seeking to deny a child from leaving the country, and in turn forcing her to endure pregnancy brought on by rape, produced one of the most famous images of the early 1990s."

In 2009, three Irish women sued the government saying that the impossibility of having an legal abortion in Ireland made the procedure unnecessarily traumatic and expensive. The court agreed with the women and ordered legislation be passed for abortion to be legal in certain circumstances.

With the death of Savita Halappanavar, Ireland is at the forefront of a tragedy that underlines the need for reform in this Catholic country.

Human dignity and women's lives are at stake.