While protesters in Ireland and India rally against the Irish abortion law following the death of a Hindu woman who was refused an abortion, Ireland’s Catholic bishops have affirmed that the Catholic Church “has never taught that the life of a child in the womb should be preferred to that of a mother”.
The protests follow the mid-pregnancy death of 31-year-old Savita Halappanavar of blood poisoning in Galway University Hospital after she had repeatedly asked for an abortion.
The bishops said they shared the “anguish and sorrow” of so many following the death of Mrs Halappanavar and her baby.
Repeating a statement they made last October, they said:
• Where a seriously ill pregnant woman needs medical treatment which may put the life of her baby at risk, such treatments are ethically permissible provided every effort has been made to save the life of both the mother and her baby.
• Whereas abortion is the direct and intentional destruction of an unborn baby and is gravely immoral in all circumstances, this is different from medical treatments which do not directly and intentionally seek to end the life of the unborn baby.
• Current law and medical guidelines in Ireland allow nurses and doctors in Irish hospitals to apply this vital distinction in practice while upholding the equal right to life of both a mother and her unborn baby.
Meanwhile, a London-based specialist in obstetrics and gynaecology has been named to head a health service inquiry into Mrs Halappanavar’s death and make recommendations to try to prevent a similar incident occurring again.
He is Sri Lankan-born Professor Sir Sabarantnam Arulkumaran, who is on record as advocating liberal abortion laws.
As president of the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics in 2009, he co-authored an article in the International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics which said: “We would like to challenge and encourage societies and countries with restrictive abortion laws to look at the evidence available in favour of liberal abortion laws and debate the possibility of making the choice of termination of pregnancy a legal right for women.”
Sources:
Irish Catholic Bishops Conference
Image: Breaking News.ie
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