Ireland remembers tragic Indian mum Savita Halappanavar with series of vigils

(…more) The Swedish lady, who was now a mother with her two new living children tucked up for the night in tents as we chatted around the late night camp fire, fervently pleaded with us Irish people listening to her to vote against abortion in Ireland if we were home for the vote (I wasn’t). I now encourage all women not to choose abortion freely because of that Swedish lady’s guilt and I really wouldn’t wish her life’s anguish on any woman. My heart goes out to any woman faced with such a dilemma. So, yes, ciara, I agree with you: the grey area in Irish law must be dealt with one way or another and the sooner the better.

(…more) The occasion of the Swedish lady’s tale happened around the time in the 1980’s when a Referendum on abortion was about to be held in Ireland. A large international group of us were sitting around a huge camp-fire under a warm starry Saudi Arabian night sky, chatting and chuckling about the topics of the day and whatever. The Referendum came up. The Swedish lady, a mature woman in her forties back then, joined the discussion amicably but quickly and suddenly broke down in tears, just absolutely devastated describing in unbearable agonising crying and flooding tears how she was now living for the rest of her life with her choice to abort her first two babies. She said she had no problem with the first abortion; it was “done, finished with” as she said with a flourish of her hand. But she said she heard her second aborted baby actually emit a baby cry after it was extracted before its life lapsed into death. I shudder at that happening for her. How she felt back then, as she tried to explain to all of us listening to her, is horrendously beyond my ability with words. We just could not console the lady in her anguish. (more…)

ciara, never mind oul’ Georgie Knees and Toes. Yes, I totally agree with you. I do wish the Irish Govt would legislate on the outcome of the ‘X’ case and of other cases and get rid of the grey area. Whatever way it legislates, like you, I will be bound by the law. That is not to say that I might agree with the law – there are plenty of laws in Ireland that I totally disagree with but as an Irish citizen, I am bound by them. I used to be pro-choice (never pro-abortion) on the abortion topic and, quite honestly, I still have a leaning towards that human right of a woman to choose, whether I agree with it or not. These days, I am certain that free-choice abortion is wrong and would not condone it, after listening to a Swedish woman, who, by free choice under Swedish law aborted two babies that she didn’t want, describe the aftermath of her choices. (More…)

EamonnDublin – fair dues to you for phoning in complaints to the un-caring, un-listening, selfish Irish media! I never thought to do so meself. I used to post comments on the Irish Independent’s (the ‘Indo’) and Irish Times’ online articles or letters pages under a name different from ‘jacersagain’ where I might either agree with journalists or take them to task - but since these Irish online papers now demand formal registration with them before allowing you to post comments, I’ve not done so. I’d rather keep my freedom to be not harassed personally by those who vehemently disagree with my points. But I would have, as I’ve done before, posted comments on articles that brazenly misrepresent stories of any topic or subject, such as Savita’s case. Thankfully, others are saying online on both papers’ sites what I might have said. You’re a sound man Eamonn… the Holy Spirit of Wisdom must be with ya! - God bless ya.

Opening Salvo: Sorry to expose you to the truth, but despite what you say countless Irish are acting in a subservient, supine and apologetic way in the face of Indian bullying.

You're still an utter fool, ciaradexy. Tell us how many doctors have been " sued, struck off, jailed etc" for good faith treatment of pregnant women in Ireland in the past decade. The answer is ZERO, you liar.

Jacers, 'technically' abortion is allowed but as there has been no legislation passed to allow for it, its a massive grey area. If the doc performed an abortion, he could have been sued, struck off, jailed etc. His hands were tied. There was a heart beat,so he couldnt abort.

"HappyHippo" - Good Man Yerself! I'm delighted you got that off your chest. I trust you will feel better in the morning. Éamonn, Dublin, Extremely Proud to be Irish.

Thanks chicksooze - I agree with you – no rash decision should be made at this point. I have a feeling poor Savita’s medical chart is riddled with interventions the doctors did to try to save her. I am sure once the facts are found out – medical and non-medical people alike will hear a very different story from what is in the media.

@happyhippo - Enda Kenny should not be pressured into making any decisions at this time just because there's an outcry, that would be foolish and weak on his part. I'm sure he's waiting for the facts to come in before anything will be decided. GOOD FOR HIM. @iriishgirl - spot on girl, very well said.

This whole thing is an unfortunate situation, and a tragedy for Savita’s family. A young woman has been lost, a husband widowed, and doctors who are probably wonderful health care providers are now being touted as murderers (ridiculous). However, as has been mentioned below by others – it was not the pre-term labor that killed Savita – it was the sepsis. Had the sepsis been treated aggressively (antibiotics), perhaps she would not have died. On the other hand, as none of us have the medical chart in front of us - maybe even antibiotics might not have saved her. Sepsis can be acute, rapid and fatal - as in this case. Unfortunately pro-choice advocates and anti-Catholics are using this as an excuse to push their agenda and make Ireland look like some kind of a cruel “out of date” country that should join the ranks of the rest of the world and end innocent lives at the drop of a hat. I worked on a maternity floor for 10 years and one thing I have to say to those people is - abortions do not cure sepsis. On another note – when you decide to live in a country you may want to educate yourself on their practices/laws such as abortion, euthanasia ect. Not that you have to agree with the practices/laws, but you may be forced to live by them. I have made decisions on where to live based on several health care options – and I don’t expect a country, state, town or province to change their laws to suit my personal opinions. And I don’t mean to sound cruel to Savita’s family in regards to their choice to live in Ireland – I just think it is important to consider medically related practices and laws that might affect your family.

When it comes to their moral duty,Ireland has always been a gutless delusional socialist Catholic country,witness the cover up of child clerical abuse for years,the fact that 12 Irish women abort their perfectly healthy babies every single day in the UK,yet they rejected abortion when polled on the issue,when it comes to Sevita's case,one things guaranteed,those elected to legislate will again fudge the issue as they have done for 20 years.As Mr Kenny last week said he's in no hurry to legislate,even though a similar case could occur at any time.Cowardly and yellow is not the only words most people use to describe these people.

Excellent post, "JacersAgain", thank you! Might I just add that the Irish media is behaving disgracefully in this whole matter. Two months ago, they hardly mentioned the fact that two Irish women died during childbirth in Dublin within 24 hours of each other. An extremely rare occurence - why did these tragedies get no press coverage? Also, over the weekend, the Irish media quotes Savita's husband as saying that the medical team attending to Savita were "inhumane". I hope and trust that we will see very large libel actions against the Irish media for relaying such a disgusting, outrageous claim. At least, in the case of the tragic husband, there is an excuse in that he is going through a very difficult time, but, in the case of the media, there is absolutely NO excuse for this libel. I might add that I telephoned some of the media here over the weekend in order to protest and, without exception, I was told to get on my bike! Éamonn, Dublin, Ireland.

Katiemac and FromPhoenix make many good points, but it is a medical fact that leaking amniotic fluid can lead to infection of pregnancy tissues and septicemia. In the 1970s I had a married co-worker who, in the sixth month of pregnancy, was hospitalized to prevent premature labor and the loss of her child. In the seventh month and still confined to bed rest in the hospital, she went into labor and had leakage of amniotic fluid. A nurse, who took her temperature, realized my friend was developing septicemia and alerted doctors with a Code Blue. The doctors saved my friend and her son by performing an emergency C-section and treating my friend with Cleocin, an IV antibiotic used for septicemia in the 1970s. Several years later I had a similar experience when I went into labor four days before a scheduled C-section. I rushed to the hospital, where my physician performed the C-section within 90 minutes. Later a nurse mentioned there is a danger of uterine infection and septicemia whenever amniotic fluid leaks, and I related this with my friend's experience in her seventh month of pregnancy. So, the woman from India was not necessarily in bad health before she went into labor. I believe most of the problem is one of semantics or terminology. It is unfortunate that the Irish medical personnel described the event as a "miscarriage" rather than "premature labor," especially when the fetus still had a heart beat. It is necessary to deliver the fetus and remove the pregnancy tissues to prevent a massive infection, and treatment with a strong antibiotic is given.

(..more) In all this debate, the Irish and other countries’ pro-life people’s views on Savita’s and her baby’s deaths have been pushed aside. Their views are as honest and as important as my simple contributory thoughts are in the caring that we all share in this tragedy and that of the un-reported Irish, Pakistani, Congolese and lots of other countries' ones. I think the medics in Galway, who fought to save Savita and her baby, might have a case to sue NDTV and lots of other media outlets for this horrendous false claim that was spread all over the world. We must await the outcome of medical & legal investigations into this tragedy. Let no one pre-judge its outcome, or use the tragedy of Savita’s and her child’s deaths or her husband Praveen’s mourning pain for selfish motives, whether of pro- or anti-abortion thinking. I think we all might be shocked further by the outcomes… and I mean, all of them.