This post was submitted anonymously.
Ireland is a really, REALLY, anti-abortion country. How anti-abortion is it? It's so anti-abortion that when a young woman named Savita Halappanavar start having a miscarriage during her 17th week of pregnancy, the doctors wouldn't treat her. Halappanavar was miscarrying yet the doctors wouldn't remove the fetus from her body in order to treat her. Instead they allowed the fetus to slowly asphyxiate in the womb while Halappanavar began to die in extraordinary pain.
Both she and her husband begged the doctors to perform a therapeutic D&C but the doctors replied, "Ireland is a Catholic country," and refused treatment. It was only after the heartbeat of the dying fetus had slowly faded that the doctors deigned to actually be doctors and treat Halappanavar. By this time, unfortunately, it was too late. Septicemia had set in and Halappanavar died two days later.
THAT is how anti-abortion Ireland is!
I'd use the term "pro-life," but somehow it seems inappropriate in this situation. The full article can be read
here.
Listen, we're all dating women here. Dating and sex play a large part in our lives. Pregnancy is always a possibility and both genders should appreciate how important women's health is in order for all our lives to be improved. It is immoral to ask women to sacrifice their health, their futures, their fates and, yes, in the case of Halappanavar, their lives for a moral code that not everyone agrees with.
The vast majority of the current Irish government is male. The effects of their decisions regarding women's health will not effect them personally... only the women of Ireland. In order to protect women's health both internationally and in the US we should pay attention to Halappanavar's sad story well.
What are your thoughts on the issue and government's involvement in a woman's reproductive rights?
In order to find out more about protecting women's health, go to the NARAL website
here.
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Comments (22)
Oh man, f*ck that.
Not just government but more like keep religion out of it too. Who cares if you're a Catholic country!!!! This woman and her baby are dying you idiots! -_-' She wasn't even trying to abort it, misscarried! That is a shame. Religions are full of hypocrasy.Just goes to show how much of a misnomer the title "pro-life" is. Anti-choice is what those sorry sons/daughters of bitches are. They don't give a shit about the born (namely the mother) and once that baby is born they couldn't be bothered to give a shit about it either. So typical.
Alas, this tragic, preventable, and senseless death has been brought to you by religion. When will people ever wise up and realize that god/gods are nothing but a fairy tale?
Ok. This story kind of pissed me off when I first heard about it a day or two ago. But seriously...don't knock the entire country over it. There are protests being held over there as a result of what happened to this woman. And directly from a friend I have over in Ireland, she informed me that Ireland is a "secular" country...meaning, they legally separate church from state. So the doctor broke the law.
lol love the title, worthy of foxnews headlines. The entire country of Ireland is not anti-abortion, just that certain hospital and the huge amount of Catholics in the country.
I agree with the commenters that we cant blame a whole country for the laws of the government. It happens to us all the time & it's not fun is it?. But yes, this story is horrible. They knew she was in the process of miscarrying & no matter where you are in the world, 17 weeks isnt viable. They had a duty to save this woman & she died when they didnt. Shit, I'm pregnant now & I love my baby but I wouldnt judge anyone else for the hard choices they make.
Now a young man is a widower & her family half a world away is grieving. I dont know why it takes a tragedy to make people see the wrong choices. I'm glad this story made its way to America though because it'll show these ignorant lawmakers why a blanket abortion ban is DANGEROUS!! I do disagree with late term abortions & anything over 9-10ish weeks but cases of rape, incest & the mother's life shouldnt be questioned. If you want less abortions, teach abstinence AND safe sex. Period.
And you care because? Ireland is a small island isolated from much of the world that most people want to move out of because the economy is so bad. Let them keep their Catholic traditions.
Oh and guess what? Guns are illegal in Ireland as well. At least they're not discriminating like liberals here in the US do.
That's horrible! I'm very pro-life but gosh! That's just sickening!
I don't think abortions should ever be done just "because I don't want to have to deal with a baby", but if the mother is about to die then yeah, I do believe it is acceptable, especially if, I don't know, the baby is already definitely dying!!!
That's not pro-life, that's disgusting, and the doctors should be very ashamed. What happened to the Hippocratic Oath?! Vile.
@nepenthium@xanga - abortion is illegal in the Republic of Ireland, so, yes, they're very much "against abortion".
@daydreams_nightmares@xanga - Semantics issue. If you read the title as a personification of Ireland, and equate the nation to the mass of its citizen, then yes in that sense "they"/Ireland/its people are against abortions. But I normally think of a nation as composing of individuals, and there are thousands of Irish citizens protesting the incident and that medieval law, so using Ireland here to represent individual citizens would unfairly lump all everyone together. Also, I thought the law said no abortions unless the mother's life was in danger (though they didn't specify what qualifies as danger)
@nepenthium@xanga - the law does say that, but obviously it wasn't followed here as they let her die. I assume that when the OP said "Ireland" they were referring to the laws/government, not every individual.
I'm Catholic, and the topic of abortion comes up quite frequently in my house (much to my annoyance, I'd rather be talking about unicorns and ponies, but whatever. :P) I know pretty well what the Catholic church teaches on abortion. Yes, the Church is very much against abortion, but in the case of the mother's life being threatened, it's alright. There has to be something missing in this story. That's just my view.
@The_Selkie_Inside_Me@xanga - You're Catholic, I'm lethargic.
I've always wondered, if a person who studies science is a scientist, is a person who studies Episcopalians an Episcopaliantologist?
Someone needs to go to jail. ***AKA Doctor***
This tragic event has somewhat been overtaken and diverted into a pro/anti abortion discussion. I believe this is distracting from what really went on here. For the record, I don't believe it is the government's role to make decisions as to whether people have a family.
In Ireland, abortion isn't illegal and as such, Medical staff in hospitals can carry out abortions providing the mother's life is in danger. However, the law is a little grey in this area. In this situation, it seems they either made bad medical decisions or weren't sure of their legal rights. I'll reiterate this: There is adequate law in Ireland to ensure that cases like this can and should be handled successfully by medical intervention. This was a case of medical failure.
I'd also like to point out that in the 2 referendums where the public decided to vote against abortion. No doubt a third one will be carried out. It is the DEMOCRATIC WILL of the people of Ireland that has so far decided against abortions for anything other. At 17 weeks, she would have been refused an abortion in plenty of countries. This is not necessarily specific to Ireland.
many thoughts on this subject.
1) i am an anarchist. i dont believe the government should have the right to tell you what you can do with your body.
2) i am an athiest. i dont believe in the concept of "absolute morals" that most religious people do. i dont believe god will send me to hell for having an abortion and if there was a god who did send me to hell i wouldnt care, i would do it anyways.
3) the world is run by a bunch of hypocritical jerks who think they have the right to tell us all what to do and for the most part this ideology is justified by *dingding* you guessed it! RELIGION.
it disgusts me that people will essentially commit murder all in the name of "morality" and "what is right".
what the hell do you know about right and wrong you corrupt politicians?
nothing.
the only evil i see here is the evil of society. society creates moral codes and "good" and "evil" as means of controlling and subjugating the people who are too trusting or too stupid to realize they are being used.
For anyone who thinks that abortions should be legal in their country... They need to look up Romanias birth control/abortion laws.. Well, their previous law, as I believe they have access to birth control now.. But still, it's really crazy :/ Also, more deaths happen when abortions are illegal.
*sigh* This makes me so sad. I hope I live to see what this world is like 20 years from now. Just curious.
@LauraDeLuna@xanga - LOL, you sound like you're very young. Put down the Ayn Rand and pick up a newspaper before you start talking about the evils of Government. If anarchy worked as a legitimate social system Somalia would be paradise on earth.
@NinjaJodi@xanga - Um... why wouldn't you? Are you sick? None of my business, I know, but unless they're extremely elderly I think most people expect to live another twenty years.
@phoebester@xanga - i have no idea who this ayn rand person is. you sound awfully young yourself for making such a comment.
another thing: political ideology is two things, first, it is an idea of what the ideal goverment would be and secondly, it is the goverment that one believes would exist in its perfect form. we do not live in an perfect world therefore there is no possible form of government that is any better than the others.
anarchy in my idea would be the best state of being because idealogically it does not involve the unwanted subjugation of certain parties over others, a concept which by our standards is completely impossible seeing as we live in a world that is built upon the ideas of dominion of certain parties over others.
do not begrudge what you do not understand.
Ireland is a great country (I lived there for quite awhile) but the Republic is first and foremost Catholic and everything else seems to fall into place after that. In places like America and Canada their mentality seems ancient and "ass-backwards" and as a non-Catholic and someone who is pro-choice I cannot pretend I understand the mindset but many Catholic beliefs tend be more archaic and haven't evolved with the current generation's mindset.
As far as being a doctor refusing an abortion goes...I've seen this information circling facebook a lot but I have yet to find an in-depth article about it. It seems like a doctor's responsibility is to the life of his patients first and anything personal second. It's about health, not religion and politics. Does anyone know who the doctor was and what happened to him/her?
I know that in Ireland becoming a doctor on the island is extremely competitive. I know only something like 100 new doctors are allowed to be licensed each year...which sounds a little backwards to me. Chances are actually getting your license may be a bit about politics and money too.
Ireland is a complicated country. They constantly have their feet in two different worlds...sometimes three. They are stuck between Catholicism, the modern world, and their Celtic heritage. Now that the country has become a bit more stable they are slowly carving out their niche in our modern world.
As a used-to-be local and a woman, I have hope that Ireland will slowly change for the better. As awful as it sounds maybe it is stories like this that will change Ireland.
Ireland has done some "firsts" that America hasn't even accomplished They've already had TWO female presidents, Mary Therese Winifred Robinson and Mary Patricia McAleese. They may be ass-backwards on something but in other ways they are paving the road to modernism.
All in all what happened to that woman and her family was barbaric and wrong and should never have happened, and I pray, will never happened again, but I think it is important that we do not view Ireland as a barbaric country.