Supporters of the Irish abortion bill say it would give "conscience-clause" protection to health-care personnel who did not wish to be involved in abortions, but the bishops question that claim.

Ironically, the proposed legislation is entitled the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill.

In fact, the bishops say, this "dramatic and morally unacceptable change to Irish law" would "make the direct and intentional killing of unborn children lawful in Ireland".

The pressure to modify Ireland's abortion law intensified last year after Savita Halappanavar died in Galway University Hospital. Her death was originally attributed to doctors' refusal to perform an abortion, but an inquest found she died of an undiagnosed infection.

Suggesting that the bill appears to impose a duty on Catholic hospitals to provide abortions, the bishops said: "This would be totally unacceptable and has serious implications for the existing legal and constitutional arrangements that respect the legitimate autonomy and religious ethos of faith-based institutions."

But the independent IrishHealth website said "in practical terms, there are no institutions which can still be termed 'Catholic hospitals' which would be obliged under the Bill's terms to perform terminations".

IrishHealth says only one maternity hospitals, the National Maternity Hospital in Dubliin, could still be deemed, in technical terms, a "Catholic hospital", since the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin is chairman and three priests are on the board.

But it says the Church has had no active role in the hospital in recent times and the current archbishop, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, has sought to be removed as chairman.

The bishops urged Catholics to contact their political representatives and encourage a vote against the bill, but they did not suggest any disciplinary action against the sponsors of the legislation, including the government leadership.

Questioned as to whether politicians who vote for the bill should be barred from receiving Communion, Cardinal Sean Brady of Armagh answered: "There would be a great reluctance to politicise the Eucharist."

Sources:

Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference

Irish Times

Irish Health

Image: Irish Examiner

Savita Halappanavar, a 31-year-old Indian dentist, died in Galway University Hospital last October, a week after being admitted to hospital in her 17th week of pregnancy.

Evidence to the inquest showed that her death was the result of a single mistake made on the day she was admitted. Doctors failed to follow up on blood tests which indicated she may have been fighting a life-threatening sepsis infection.

One obstetrician — who did not have care of Mrs Halappanavar — indicated to the inquest that an abortion might have saved her life.

But the evidence of the other experts pointed overwhelmingly against that conclusion, and the jury accepted the coroner's verdict of "medical misadventure".

Nine recommendations which followed all relating to systems and procedures — not to changing or clarifying the abortion law. Instead, the inquest recommended that the medical council clarify its guidelines on what constituted real and substantive risks to mothers.

In any case, it appears that Mrs Halappanavar could have received an abortion under present Irish law if it were clear that her pregnancy posed a risk to her life.

Mrs Halappanavar's husband Praveen told the Irish Times that the main reason his wife wanted an abortion was because "she wanted to be home Tuesday before her parents flew out. She wanted to be there at any cost."

In the aftermath of Mrs Halappanavar's death, her husband frequently claimed that the consultant who refused an abortion did so on the basis that "Ireland is a Catholic country".

The consultant, Dr Katherine Astbury, denied saying this, and her denial was supported by a junior doctor who was present.

The inquest established it was a midwife who made the comment about Irish Catholicism some three hours later — in the context of a broader conversation about cultural differences between India and Ireland.

Ireland is one of the safest places in the world in which to give birth. It boasts maternal death rates 33 times lower than in Mrs Halappanavar's home country of India.

Sources:

Catholic Voices

MercatorNet

Image: Galway Independent

Ann Maria Burke admitted she made the remark to Savita Halappanavar last October but insisted that it was meant it in kindness.

She was testifying at an inquest into the death of Mrs Halappanavar, who died of a heart attack caused by septicaemia due to E.coli four days after she delivered a dead baby daughter.

Burke, the senior midwife at University Hospital Galway, in West Ireland, said she used the reference to Catholic teaching after Mrs Halappanavar said she was Hindu and she would have ended her pregnancy in her home country of India.

"I did mention it's a Catholic country. I didn't mention it in a hurtful context. It was in a conversation we had," Burke told the coroner.

Burke said in hindsight her remark "sounded bad" and was something she regretted.

She said the statement had "come out the wrong way and I'm sorry that I said it".

"I was trying to be as broad and explanatory as I could. It was nothing to do with medical care at all," she said.

The coroner, Dr Ciaran McLoughlin, said the remark had gone around the world and he said public hospitals in Ireland did not follow religious dogma of any persuasion.

Mrs Halappanavar's husband, Praveen Halappanavar, had earlier told the inquest that a consultant obstetrician, Dr Katherine Astbury, had said an abortion was not possible because Ireland was a Catholic country.

But a lawyer for Astbury said the consultant would "categorically deny" ever making any reference to Ireland being a "Catholic country".

But Astbury acknowledged there was a "systems failure" in the care given to Mrs Halappanavar.

Sources:

The Independent

Irish Central

BBC

Image: Yahoo! News

The Fine Gael-run government's action follows the death of Savita Halappanavar, an Indian woman who was admitted to a Galway hospital while miscarrying. She reportedly asked for an abortion and later died of a severe infection.

The cause of her death is still being investigated, but abortion advocates seized on her case to claim legal abortion would have saved her life and to push for changes to the law.

Pro-life leaders in Ireland and abroad, however, have slammed the media and abortion campaigners for exploiting the young woman's tragic death despite the dearth of details about what actually happened.

They also say there is clear evidence that pro-abortion groups knew about Mrs Halappanavar's case days before it hit the media, and that they were already planning on using it to further their cause.

A leaked email dated November 11 — three days before the Irish Times broke the story — indicates that the Irish Choice Network had been given prior knowledge of the case.

The email advised followers of the pro-abortion group that "a major news story in relation to abortion access is going to break in the media early this coming week", and said this would be the basis of a prearranged protest calling for abortion outside the Irish Parliament.

Pro-life leaders have reminded Prime Minister Enda Kenny and the Fine Gael party of a pro-life commitment they made before the 2011 election, and said breaking that promise would have consequences at the next election.

Ireland's Catholic archbishops have said the proposed law would "pave the way for the direct and intentional killing of unborn children".

They also said it would harm the country's world-renowned health care practices for mothers.

The republic is in fact one of the safest countries in the world for pregnant mothers, losing only three out of every 100,000 women in childbirth. The average number in Europe and North America, where abortion is freely available, is 14 per 100,000.

Sources:

Catholic News Agency

RTE News

LifeSiteNews

Catholic News Agency

Image: Catholic Sun

But the facts surrounding this sad case and the international media's reading of them are disturbingly out of synch. The Irish Times set the agenda for interpretation when it broke the story under the headline, "Woman 'denied a termination' dies in hospital". The story being run around the world is not the sad story about an unfortunate woman's death resulting from septicaemia caused by a miscarriage. It is a story about Ireland's resistance to legislation allowing abortion and - in the commentariat's view -why that resistance must now be abandoned.

What is disturbing about all this is the flight from reason and truth in the service of a propaganda campaign by Ireland's - and the whole world's — pro-abortion activists. Many of the facts surrounding the case are not at all clear, but one thing is certain: this tragic case is not the result of Ireland's law protecting the unborn child. At issue is medical practice in a particular Irish hospital and whether or not the medical team involved in this case did everything they could do to save this woman's life, as they were obliged to do by Irish law and the ethics of their profession.

What we do know is that on October 21 Savita Halappanavar, a 31-year-old dentist, visited Galway University Hospital suffering from back pain. She was 17 weeks pregnant. She was diagnosed and was told that she was having a miscarriage. She requested a termination - but, as they had diagnosed, the termination had already begun naturally.

Irish law - and the Irish Constitution - prohibits the procedure of abortion of unborn babies in the womb but it does not prohibit evacuation of the womb where the process of a miscarriage has already begun - or where a baby in the womb has already died. Such procedures are regularly carried out in Irish hospitals. Miscarriage can, however, be wrongly diagnosed and surgical evacuation offered when the baby is still alive and healthy, as Breda O'Brien noted in an Irish Times op-ed last Saturday. One such case prompted an official inquiry two years ago in which 24 similar cases were examined.

In Savita's case surgical intervention is evidently what should have happened. It did not. Her pain continued for three days and she eventually died of septicaemia. Two investigations are now in progress as to why she died - one by the hospital itself and one by the Irish health authority.

What has been widely reported is that doctors denied her request "for an abortion" because they said that they detected a foetal heartbeat and that Irish law ruled out a termination. Further reports say someone told Savita that this was because "Ireland is a Catholic country". That such reasons would have been given for delaying the inducement is considered extraordinary by medical and non-medical Irish people alike. But they are equally dismayed by what they see as the callous manipulation of this situation by the abortion advocates before even the most basic investigation of the facts is carried out.

The manipulation of the situation is seen by many to be blatant and premeditated. The Irish Times, which has been campaigning for changes to Irish law on abortion for many years, had this story for some days before publishing it. Within hours of the story breaking a large demonstration by pro-choice activists had assembled outside the Irish parliament building. An email has now been leaked - the source as yet unknown - showing that news of the story was given in advance to these activists. The e-mail, dated Sunday, November 11, indicates that the Irish Choice Network knew the story was going to break. The Irish Times did not break the story publicly until November 14th.

The email told ICN members that "a major news story in relation to abortion access is going to break in the media early this coming week," and it would be the pretext for a protest calling for abortion legislation outside the Dail (Ireland's parliament) on Wednesday. Members were asked to attend a meeting where they would have "more definite information around which we can make some collective decisions about how best to proceed."

"Apologies if this is all a little mysterious, but the reason why I didn't want to put specific details down by email will probably be clear tomorrow," the sender added.

Niamh Ui Bhriain of Ireland's Life Institute is now asking the media and the HSE (Health Services Executive) why this information seems to have been given in advance to abortion advocates. "Was it given to them by the Irish Times, or by someone in the HSE? And if so, why?" she asked. "As we await the investigation into what happened in Galway hospital, we need to know why this private patient information was given to campaigners for legalised abortion in Ireland," she said.

For Ms Ui Bhriain it is "outrageous" to suggest that Catholic teaching would prevent proper treatment for a pregnant woman. "Neither the ethos of the Catholic Church nor the pro-life laws of Ireland would prevent any woman from receiving all the treatment she requires in order to preserve her life," she said, adding that "abortion doesn't cure septicaemia and isn't a treatment for miscarriage."

Speaking to LifeSiteNews.com she said that Ireland's laws already prioritise the life of the mother. Under the current law, doctors who fail to intervene to save a woman's life are subject to disciplinary action for negligence. Continue reading

Image: Mercator

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

The Guardian

The Irish Catholic

Image: Breaking News.ie

Savita Halappanavar, a Hindu dentist originally from India, died of blood poisoning in Galway University Hospital. She was aged 31.

Her husband, Praveen Halappanavar, told news media that his wife had gone to the hospital with back pains on October 21 when she was 17 weeks pregnant. She was found to be miscarrying and was admitted. Because of her pain, she asked for an abortion but was refused.

"A doctor said it was the law — that this is a Catholic country. Savita said, ‘I am neither Irish nor Catholic' but they said there was nothing they could do," Mr Halappanavar said.

He said the doctor told the couple that the baby would not survive, but as long as there was a foetal heartbeat "there was nothing they could do".

After three days the baby died and its remains were surgically removed. Within hours the mother was placed under sedation in intensive care with blood poisoning. She was pronounced dead on October 28.

Speaking in the Irish parliament, Health Minister James Reilly said he had no evidence to suggest a Catholic ethos at the hospital prevented the pregnant woman's life from being saved by a medical termination.

The government, which has been considering changes to the law banning abortion, has said two internal investigations are being held into Mrs Halappanavar's death.

The government has been under pressure to change the law after the European Court of Human Rights two years ago ruled that Ireland was violating European Union law by not allowing abortions for life-threatening pregnancies.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation identifies Ireland as an unusually safe place to be pregnant. Its most recent report on global maternal death rates found that only three out of every 100,000 women die in childbirth in Ireland, compared with an average of 14 in Europe and North America, 190 in Asia and 590 in Africa.

Sources:

The Independent

Associated Press

Image: The Independent