Woman dies after abortion request 'refused' at Galway hospital
Savita Halappanavar's family
said she asked several times for an abortion before she died. Photograph
courtesy of the Irish Times
The husband of a pregnant woman who
died in an Irish hospital has said he has no doubt she would be alive if she had
been allowed an abortion.
Savita Halappanavar's family said she asked several times for her pregnancy to be terminated because she had severe back pain and was miscarrying.
Her husband told the BBC that it was refused because there was a foetal heartbeat.
Ms Halappanavar's death, on 28 October, is the subject of two investigations.
An autopsy carried out two days after her death found she had died from septicaemia, according to the Irish Times.
Ms Halappanavar, who was 31 and originally from India, was a dentist.
Praveen Halappanavar said staff at University Hospital Galway told them Ireland was "a Catholic country".
When asked by the BBC if he thought his wife would still be alive if the termination had been allowed, Mr Halappanavar said: "Of course, no doubt about it."
He said Savita had been "on top of the world" before experiencing difficulties.
"It was her first baby, first pregnancy and you know she was on top of the world basically," he said.
"She was so happy and everything was going well, she was so excited.
"On the Saturday night everything changed, she started experiencing back pain so we called into the hospital, the university hospital."
He said she continued to experience pain and asked a consultant if she could be induced.
"They said unfortunately she can't because it's a Catholic country," Mr Halappanavar said.
"Savita said to her she is not Catholic, she is Hindu, and why impose the law on her.
"But she said 'I'm sorry, unfortunately it's a Catholic country' and it's the law that they can't abort when the foetus is live."
The baby's heartbeat stopped on the Wednesday.
"I got a call at about half twelve on the Wednesday night that Savita's heart rate had really gone up and that they had moved her to ICU," Mr Halappanavar said.
"Things just kept on getting worse and on Friday they told me that she was critically ill."
He said some of Savita's organs stopped functioning and she died on Sunday 28 October
Continue reading the main story
Abortion remains a divisive issue in the Republic of Ireland, but not as
divisive as it once was.
But the country's abortion laws are a mess and have been for 20 years since what was called the 'X case'.
'X' was a suicidal pregnant 14-year-old school girl, the victim of a rape who was initially prevented from leaving the state to terminate her pregnancy.
The Irish Supreme Court ruled that the mother and child have an equal right to life but that the threat of suicide was grounds for an abortion.
However, no government has enacted legislation to give certainty to doctors as to when terminations can be carried out and under what circumstances.
Politicians privately admit this is due to a belief on their part that people in the Irish Republic don't want abortion in Ireland as long as there's a British solution to the country's abortion problem.
Pro-choice activists accuse successive governments of moral cowardice.
But the current Fine Gael-Labour coalition has said it will finally legislate on the matter.
Substantial
risk
But the country's abortion laws are a mess and have been for 20 years since what was called the 'X case'.
'X' was a suicidal pregnant 14-year-old school girl, the victim of a rape who was initially prevented from leaving the state to terminate her pregnancy.
The Irish Supreme Court ruled that the mother and child have an equal right to life but that the threat of suicide was grounds for an abortion.
However, no government has enacted legislation to give certainty to doctors as to when terminations can be carried out and under what circumstances.
Politicians privately admit this is due to a belief on their part that people in the Irish Republic don't want abortion in Ireland as long as there's a British solution to the country's abortion problem.
Pro-choice activists accuse successive governments of moral cowardice.
But the current Fine Gael-Labour coalition has said it will finally legislate on the matter.
University Hospital Galway is to carry out an internal
investigation. It said it could not comment on individual cases but would be
cooperating fully with the coroner's inquest into Ms Halappanavar's death.
The Health Service Executive has launched a separate investigation.
Asked if the Irish government would carry out an external inquiry into the death, Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny said: "It would be very appropriate that we don't rule anything out here, but there are two reports and investigations going on at the moment."
Abortion is illegal in the Republic except where there is a real and substantial risk to the life, as distinct from the health, of the mother.
The Irish government in January established a 14-member expert group to make recommendations based on a 2010 European Court of Human Rights judgment that the state failed to implement existing rights to lawful abortion where a mother's life was at risk.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health said that the group was due to report back to the Minister for Health James Reilly shortly.
"The minister will consider the group's report and subsequently submit it to government," the spokesperson said.
Funeral
Mr Halappanavar is still in India after accompanying his wife's body there for her funeral.
The Galway Roscommon University Hospitals Group said it extended its sympathies to Ms Halappanavar's family.
In a statement the group said its inquiry into Ms Halappanavar's death had not started yet because the hospital was waiting to consult with the family.
"In general in relation to media enquiries about issues where there may be onward legal action, we must reserve our position on what action we may take if assertions about a patient's care are published and we cannot speak for individual doctors or other medical professionals if a report were to name or identify any," it said.
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