Controversy over
Ireland’s abortion laws has exploded world-wide after a 31-year-old woman
died on October 28 of blood poisoning, having miscarried her 17-week-old fetus.
Savita Halappanavar’s husband says that Irish doctors refused to terminate her
pregnancy—which may or may not have allowed for the reversal of her blood poisoning—after
detecting a fetal heartbeat, allegedly telling the couple, “This is a Catholic
country.” From
the AP:
University Hospital Galway in western Ireland
declined to say whether doctors believed Halappanavar’s blood poisoning could
have been reversed had she received an abortion rather than wait for the fetus
to die on its own. …
Savita Halappanavar’s husband, Praveen, said
doctors determined that she was miscarrying within hours of her hospitalization
for severe pain on Sunday, Oct. 21. He said that over the next three days
doctors refused their requests for a termination of her fetus to combat her own
surging pain and fading health. …
He said his wife vomited repeatedly and
collapsed in a restroom that night, but doctors wouldn’t terminate the fetus
because its heart was still beating.
The fetus died the following day and its
remains were surgically removed. Within hours, Praveen Halappanavar said, his
wife was placed under sedation in intensive care with systemic blood poisoning
and he was never able to speak with her again. By Saturday her heart, kidneys
and liver had stopped working and she was pronounced dead early Sunday, Oct.
28.
Several
investigations into exactly what happened in Halappanavar’s case are underway,
but one fact seems clear, according to pro-life observers: this tragic death
wasn’t the result of medical personnel following Irish abortion laws, but of a failure
to adhere to established medical protocol. Writing for the UK Catholic Herald, William
Oddie argues:
This
is a case which clearly needs looking at closely; on the face of it, a refusal
to save Mrs Halappanavar’s life by inducing her unborn child, when it was clear
that her death would in any case lead to the death of the child (this in fact
happened in this case), does not seem to be consistent either with Catholic
moral theology or, it is now being claimed, with Irish law or the guidelines
which govern medical practice in such cases. …
The
fact is, however, that this tragic death by no means justifies any change to
Irish law — or medical practice, if it is properly carried out according to
Irish Medical Council guidelines. Eilís Mulroy has a comment piece today, also in
The Irish Independent, under the headline “Pro-choice side must not
hijack this terrible event”, asking the obvious question: “Was Ms
Halappanavar treated in line with existing obstetrical practice in Ireland? In
this kind of situation the baby can be induced early (though is very unlikely
to survive). The decision to induce labour early would be fully in compliance
with the law and the current guidelines set out for doctors by the Irish
Medical Council.
“Those
guidelines allow interventions to treat women where necessary, even if that
treatment indirectly results in the death to the baby. If they aren’t being
followed, laws about abortion won’t change that. The issue then becomes about
medical protocols being followed in hospitals and not about the absence of
legal abortion in Ireland.”
Ireland’s leading pro-life organization,
the Pro-Life Campaign, also
criticized those who are calling for a revision of Irish abortion laws in
light of Halappanavar’s death:
It
is deplorable that those who want to see abortion available here are exploiting
Mrs Halappanavar’s tragic death when the Medical Council Guidelines are very
clear that all necessary medical treatment must be given to women in pregnancy.
Given this, we welcome the fact that a thorough investigation to establish what
went wrong is taking place.
It
is also vitally important to acknowledge at this time that Ireland, without
induced abortion, is recognised by the UN and World Health Organisation as a
world leader in protecting women in pregnancy and is safer than places like
Britain and Holland where abortion is widely available.
More
to come, as the investigations into what exactly happened—and, undoubtedly, calls for legal action—continue.