A
thirty one year old dentist died at University Hospital Galway in Ireland on 28
of October after being refused an abortion.
To begin, I think it would be prudent to explain the situation in
Ireland with regard to abortion. Abortions are constitutionally forbidden in
Ireland since the Eight amendment was passed in a bitter and divisive
referendum in 1982. In 1992 the abortion debate once again came to the fore
when the Supreme Court ruled in Attorney General v. X (commonly known as the X case) that abortion was permissible
when the life of the mother was in danger either medically or through the risk
of suicide. This opened up the flood gates for another acrimonious debate. The
government put forward a raft of amendments before the people in 1992 in
response to this judgement. Its first proposal the Twelfth Amendment which
would have prevented the risk of suicide for being a lawful reason for
having an abortion; this amendment failed. The other amendments which
accompanied the Twelfth amendment were passed. The Thirteenth amendment
guaranteed that the state’s prohibition of abortion would not affect a woman’s
freedom to travel; this effectively made it possible for women to have
abortions abroad without fear of prosecution. The Fourteen Amendment guaranteed
that women would be allowed to procure information about abortion services in
foreign countries without fear of prosecution.
In 2002 the Twenty-fifth Amendment was put forward which like the
Twelfth tried to remove suicide as an acceptable reason to have an abortion in
the state, however like the Twelfth amendment it was rejected by the people.
Since 1992 successive governments
have failed to pass a law regulating for abortion in the circumstances where
a woman’s life is at risk. This means while technically such abortions are
legal doctors have no clear framework to work on i.e. at which point is a
women’s life sufficiently at risk to allow an abortion? This was brought to the
fore in 2010 when the European Court of Human rights ruled on A, B and C Vs Ireland. Most of the plaintiffs’
pleas were rejected but the Court found that Ireland’s failure to put forward a
regulatory framework in line the X case violated C’s rights. C had a cancer
which was in remission and she unintentionally fell pregnant. Unsure about the risks to her health she
procured an abortion in the UK , which was incompletely performed and she
suffered infection as a result. The court found that C’s rights were violated
as there was no mechanism at home which could have judged whether she could avail
of a legal abortion. Ireland has
significantly modernized since the passing of the Twelfth Amendment in 1982,
both divorce and contraception has been legalized. The power of the Catholic
Church has been severely reduced for a variety of reasons the top three been:
Irish Catholics are much more inclined to ignore the hierarchy than before, a
long string of sexual abuse scandals have
reduced the power of the Catholic Church and Ireland has become much
more ethically and religiously diverse. Despite these changes abortion is still
a hot button issue and most political parties are internally divided on the
issue. In 2011 a coalition of the centre-right Fine Gael Party and the
centre-left Labour (the smaller of the two) came to power and promised to
legislate for the X case. In February 2012
pro-choice MP Clare Daly of the
United Left Alliance (which is an a coalition of a variety of small hard left
parties and independents) put forward legislation for regulating abortion before the Dáil (the
Irish lower house). This bill was defeated by the government who had appointed
their own panel of experts to recommend legislation. Despite the government’s
commitments to put forward regulations there are rumblings
among some Fine Gael and Labour MPs and Senators that they might resist such
moves.
It
was in this context that this tragedy took place. The woman, Savita
Halappanavar (31) a native of India, was admitted to hospital on the 28th
complaining of back pain. According to the national broadcaster,RTÉ, she was told nothing was wrong but a couple of
hours later she was readmitted as she was not feeling well. It was discovered
she was suffering a miscarriage. She was informed that miscarriage would be
over in a number of hours instead it continued for three days. The Irish Times conducted an interview
with Mrs Halappanavar’s husband she asked for an abortion on Monday. However on Tuesday morning the medic told her
they would not do so because the foetus still had a heartbeat and that Ireland
was ‘a Catholic country’ (a controversial point as all reference to the
Catholic Church was removed from the Constitution in 1973). This must
particularly offensive to the Mrs Halappanavar who was a Hindu. On Tuesday her condition worsened with the
onset of shivering and vomiting. On Wednesday the foetal heartbeat ceased at
which point surgery was performed. She
was removed to a high intensity unit and died on Sunday the twenty-eight.
According to the Irish Times report an autopsy delivered two days later she
died of septicaemia and E.coli ESBL. Mrs Hallappanavar’s body was reposed in
Galway and then returned to her native India.
The Irish Independent reported the Mrs Halappanavar’s family is
planning to sue the hospital for not terminating the pregnancy and thereby
endangering her life.
Despite
her death on the 28th of October the issue only made headlines late
on the 13th of November. Once
the story broke it made the front-page in Ireland’s three major broadsheets the
Irish Times, Irish Examiner and Irish Independent. The story was also
carried on the British news sources such as the BBC website, the Guardian, and on the Independent’s
news site. The Irish social media has gone into overdrive over the story with #Savita
and #RIPSavita being the most popular hashtags. They are closely followed
by #Dail and #Dáil which refer to a
planned protest outside the Irish Houses of Parliament in protest over Mrs
Halappanavar’s death. While on the political discussion site politics.ie burst into acrimonious bickering
between pro-life and pro-choice posters on the topic which went on for multiple
pages until the mods were forced to temporally suspend the thread in order to review
‘potentially problematic posts’ in order words posts which were overly abusive
or which were libellous (the thread was restored at 5.40 GMT). Facebook was
also of angry messages giving out about the hospital and Irish abortion laws.
As was
to be expected a large number of politicians gave their opinion on the case.
According to Evening Herald Clare Daly of the ULA demanded ‘immediate action’. The independent
broadcaster TV3 reported that the Minister of Health called Mrs Halappanavar’s
death a tragedy, he commiserated with her family and ordered the Health Service
Executive to draw up a report on the case but he added it would be inappropriate
to make more comments until such a report was finalized. The Taoiseach (Prime Minister), Enda Kenny, also
referred to her death as a tragedy, when asked on whether an independent
inquiry was to be considered he commented that while he is not rule anything
out there were already two inquiries been pursued.on her death and he revealed
that the report by the expert panel on the X case was given to the minister of
health the previous day. Ivana Bacik the leader of the Labour Party in the
Senate and a prominent pro-choice campaigner said the government should put in
place regulations in line with X case immediately. This was echoed on the
Campaign for Labour Policy’s website. This organisation is a pressure group of
grassroot Labour supporters unhappy with Labour’s performance in the government
coalition and which wants to see Labour pursue more left wing policies. However
like other political parties Labour is divided on the issue. TV3 reported that
Bacik’s senate colleague John Whelan condemned her remarks and declared his
pro-life credentials, while Fine Gael MP James Bannon declared that he would
not support such legislation. According RTÉ seven MPs brought up the issue in
the Dáil. The opposition Sinn Féin party said that Government should introduce
regulation in line with the X case as promptly as possible. The other main
opposition party Fianna Fáil called for an independent inquiry. While in the
Senate Ronan Mullins who is a socially conservative Catholic commented that
people where jumping to conclusions and that people should not use the death to
further their agendas. On RTÉ News legal and medical professionals called on
the government to legislate regulations on line with the X case. As it stands
it is unclear what exactly constitutes a threat to a woman’s life and indeed the
question was raised that is unclear at which point the risk to Mrs
Halappanavar’s emerge.
As well as
the HSE report the Irish Independent reported that Galway Roscommon
University Group (which administers Galway University Hospital) is also
undertaking its own review. It also quoted a statement from the hospital:
“Galway Roscommon University
Hospitals Group (GRUHG) co-operates fully with coroners’ inquests. In general,
in the case of a maternal death, a number of procedures are followed, including
a risk review of the case and the completion of a maternal death notification
form.
“External experts are involved in
the review and the family of the deceased are consulted on the terms of
reference, are interviewed by the review team and given a copy of the final
report.”
Whether this issue represents a
watershed on the Irish abortion debate is hard to tell, what is to be guaranteed
is that an extra element of emotion to an already contentious debate. Hopefully
it will wake up some people to why such legislation is needed. Both those in
Fine Gael and Labour have to stay the course and stare down the pro-life
dissenters in their ranks. If needs be they may have to move across the aisle
and secure the support of members of the opposition parties to secure the votes
they need.
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