Similar death to Savita Halappanavar ignored in the mainstream media

Double standards, anti- Catholic bias are rampant in Irish press

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Pictured: Savita Halappanavar -- Doctors at Galway University Hospital refused to perform a medical termination

Photo by Google Images

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A woman dies in a Galway hospital after a termination that may well have contributed to her death. Result: A twitter storm outrage, worldwide condemnation and calls for Ireland to scrap or change its regime of legal protection for unborn children.

Never mind that no evidence exists as yet as to what role, if any, Ireland’s anti abortion laws played in the death of Savita Halappanavar. Never mind the observation made in the Hindu Times last November by Dr. Fema Divakar (who as a woman, non catholic, and head of India’s Federation of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, has more right than most to comment) that the delay in giving Savita an abortion was not only an unlikely cause of death, but that giving her the abortion earlier might have led to her dying earlier. And never mind that Ireland’s health services have been the subject of significant complaints and scandals regarding mismanagement, inefficiency and gross errors.

No, in the wake of Savita’s death, all fact, evidence and proportion – and any genuine concern for women (which would have awaited clear evidence on the cause of her death) – was swept aside in a torrent of politically directed bile against Ireland, its “catholic ethos” and its laws protecting unborn life.

But now the shallow hypocrisy of that reaction has been exposed. In a story covered in the Sligo Champion – but not (surprise, surprise) in the nation’s largely “liberal” national media – it was revealed that another Indian woman died in an Irish hospital two years before Savita.

Dhara Kivlehan died in a Belfast hospital some days after being transferred there having contracted an infection after giving birth in Sligo Regional Hospital. Her pregnancy had been healthy. Like Savita her death was tragic and perhaps needless.

Unlike Savita, however, there was no storm of outrage on twitter on her behalf, despite her death occurring two years before Savita’s. No front page headlines in the national newspapers.
And no international condemnation. But then, how could there be international media coverage when there was no national media coverage? And the reason there was no national media coverage proves conclusively what now most of us know and understand clearly about the media: Its clearly biased liberal agenda and its determination to decide what – and what isn’t – news depending on what suits the advancement or hinderment of that agenda. So you won’t find media telling you that Ireland is one of the safest places on earth to give birth.

Or that Savita Halapannavar is more likely to have died from aggravated infection than any lack of abortion. And you certainly won’t get any investigation into whether the cause of her death may have been the state of Ireland’s government owned health system. Where Savita’s death prompted three inquiries – the Coroner’s report, a report by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) and one headed by Dr. Sabaratnam Arulkumaran (who happens to be a leading advocate of abortion on demand on ”health” grounds) – Dhara Kivlehan’s family have so far been refused even a coroner’s inquiry.

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