Irish Woman Dies After Abortion Refused


Savita Halappanavar was 17 weeks pregnant when she checked into a Galway
hospital for back pain. She was suffering from a late miscarriage, but was denied a
medical abortion even after severe complications arose. A week later, she died from
septicaemia.

Now Ireland’s strict policies surrounding abortion are under severe scrutiny.
Halappanavar’s husband said she was told “This is a Catholic country” after
requesting the termination. They were denied the abortion because medical staff
had detected a fetal heartbeat. But Halappanavar’s family believes that the refusal
only served to delay the inevitable and later caused the blood poisoning that killed
her.

Her husband, Praveen Halappanavar said, “Savita was really in agony. She was very
upset, but she accepted that she was losing the baby. When the consultant came on
the ward rounds on Monday morning, Savita asked if they could not save the baby
could they induce to end the pregnancy. The consultant said: ‘As long as there is a
fetal heartbeat we can’t do anything.”

A few days later, Savita started vomiting and shivering, the doctors starting her on
antibiotics. She soon became critically ill, and by Saturday her heart, kidneys, and
liver had shut down. She died that night.

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