Debate over abortion still raging

After the death of Savita Halappanavar due to miscarriage on October 2012, the Irish government is still uncertain about abortion, though people are angered

On November 17^th, 2012, around 5,000 people marched in O'Connell Street, Dublin, to the offices of Ireland's socially conservative prime minister to call for clearer guidelines on abortion following the death of a woman denied a termination. It was the largest of a wave of protests across Ireland in recent days. On the same day in Galway, where this women died, a candlelit vigil took place.

Savita Halappanavar died after
being denied an abortion

The case of the death of Savita Halappanavar is not unknown in Ireland now: this 31-year-old Indian dentist^st was admitted to hospital on October 21 in severe back pain. She was 17 weeks pregnant, and was found to be miscarrying. The doctors told her the baby would not survive, so she asked for a termination several times: but as the heart of the fetus still beat they wouldn't do it, in a country where this issue was still not legislated: “This is a Catholic country”, she was answered.

Days later, after the heart stopped beating, the fetus was surgically removed, but her family believes the delay contributed to the blood poisoning and E.coli infection that killed Halappanavar on October 28^th, a week after her demand of abortion.

The influence of the Catholic Church of Ireland over politics faded greatly since the 1980s; but now the problem also comes from the successive governments which have been loath to legislate on an issue they fear could alienate conservative voters. Indeed, Irish law does not specify exactly when the threat to the life or health of the mother is high enough to justify a termination, leaving
doctors to decide. Some say this allows doctors' personal beliefs to play a role
in the decision.

Mr Halappanavar, engineer, said “I hope they change the law and make it more people-friendly [rather] than on the basis of religious beliefs.”

The Irish health authority (HSE) has launched an inquiry into the death, reopening a decades-long debate over whether the government should legislate to explicitly allow abortion when the health of a mother is at risk. Indeed since 1992, a controversy had arisen over the issue of whether a suicidal minor who was pregnant from rape could leave Ireland for an abortion. Two amendments were passed that established the 'right to travel' and the 'right to information'. But since then the Irish law is still blur on the subject, so that already in 2010, the European Court of Human Rights had asked Ireland to clarify its law. This led to the commissioning of the experts' report well before the death of Halappanavar, a report emphasizing that a woman is still only lawfully entitled to an abortion in Ireland when there is a real and substantial risk to the life of the mother.

A protest for Savita in front of the Irish Parliament, Dublin,
on November 14th, 2012

But even after Savita's death, the Irish government is still not pronounced over this question: Prime Minister Enda Kenny, whose ruling Fine Gael party made an election pledge not to introduce new laws allowing abortion, said on November 16^th, 2012 that he would not be rushed into a decision.

However this issue is urgent: people from Ireland, and other countries such as England and India where protests spilled over, are very much angry at the government and its attitude of “wait and see”: “A vibrant, healthy woman starting her family life has died needlessly... because of the failure of successive governments to deal with this issue,” independent member of parliament Clare Daly told the crowd, which responded with chants of “shame.”

The victim's family and husband are still in a state of shock: “If it had happened in the UK or India, the thing would have been over in a few hours.”, said Mr Halappanavar. He also told the Irish Independent: “Basically everyone back home here [in India], her family and friends, everyone can’t believe it in the 21^st century in a country like Ireland.”

The following months will tell if the government is finally ready to give its opinion on the issue, which forced more than 4000 women, in 2011, to get a termination abroad.

This article was written for a university assignment.