Irish Abortion Laws Change After Death of Savita Halappanavar

The Irish government said it is in the process of amending the nation's uncompromising abortion laws after the death of Savita Halappanavar, who died of septicaemia after repeatedly being denied an abortion.

Ireland is a Catholic nation and its abortion laws have remained unwavering since 1983. After the case of Halappanavar, which stirred an outrage in the nation, Irish officials say that the law will be amended so as to legalize abortion in the specific case when the life of the mother is endangered.

James Burke, a member of the Termination for Medical Reasons Ireland campaign, told the LA Times, "We can see our government will be taking this issue seriously...It's definitely a step forward."

Cathy Newman of The Telegraph said in 1992, the Irish Supreme Court had already ruled in favor of permitting abortion in such circumstances; however the government had failed to implement the court's ruling. Newman said the court declared "abortion was legal in Ireland where there was a risk to the mother's life ... But opposition from religious groups meant that ruling was never implemented. The fact that it is now being passed into law clearly rights a legislative wrong, but little more," as reported by The Telegraph.

Seven weeks ago, Halappanavar died after being refused an abortion on various occasions, despite complaining of severe back pains and even signs of miscarrying.  She was refused an abortion because, according to the Telegraph, the fetus still had a heartbeat, even though doctors told her there was no chance of survival of the fetus.

The husband of Halappanavar told BBC News, "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...Things just kept on getting worse and on Friday they told me that she was critically ill."

When asked if his wife was happy about her pregnancy, he said, "It was her first baby, first pregnancy and you know she was on top of the world basically...She was so happy and everything was going well, she was so excited," as reported by BBC News.

Halappanavar was a 31-year-old dentist from India. She died on Oct. 28. 

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