Tag Archive for "Savita Halappanavar"

Posts Tagged Savita Halappanavar

Global Dispatch: Ireland’s March for Choice

Ed. note: This is a guest post from Grace Wilentz. Grace is a feminist activist and writer based in Dublin, Ireland. She is also a member of the South-based feminist alliance RESURJ: Realizing Sexual and Reproductive Justice. View previous coverage of Savita Halappanavar and abortion in Ireland here and here.

The sound of rolling suitcases rumbled from Dublin’s main thoroughfare to the Parliament as abortion rights activists took to the streets in Ireland’s third annual March for Choice on Saturday.

Estimates of the turnout are as high as 5000, more than double last year’s numbers. Having been an activist in this movement for a while- long enough to remember when we got excited about 40 people showing up to a demonstration- it ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 10 years ago

Ireland denies suicidal rape survivor an abortion and forces her to undergo a C-section

Ireland’s abortion law drew international outrage after the tragic death of Savita Halappanavar a couple years ago. The attention, combined with the long-term advocacy of local and international human rights organizations, spurred the government to ever-so-slightly loosen its restrictions to allow abortion “when there is a real and substantial risk to the life of the mother, including the threat of suicide over a pregnancy.” But the new law didn’t help this teenager:

The unnamed woman, now 18, was reportedly raped as a minor and sought an abortion just eight weeks into her pregnancy. Even after experts found her to be suicidal – a prerequisite for abortion under a new Irish law – she ...

By Lori Adelman • 10 years ago

The Savita Effect? How abortion policies really get liberalized

At the start of this year, a new law went into effect in Ireland, signaling a small but significant change for access to safe abortion services in Ireland. Before introduction of the law, Ireland had no practicable framework for accessing safe and legal abortions, making these services virtually unobtainable. Introduction of the law was widely reported, particularly in international media, as a reaction by the government to ...

By Katie Halper • 11 years ago

Ireland’s first legal abortion means Savita Halappanavar did not die in vain

Today, Friday, it was confirmed that an hospital in Ireland performed the first legal abortion in the country. The abortion took place in a Dublin hospital on a woman whose 18-week pregnancy was non-viable and whose life was at risk. The woman, who is doing fine, had shown signs of sepsis. But she may owe her life to another woman who was killed by sepsis when an Irish hospital refused to terminate her non-viable pregnancy: Savita Halappanavar. Halappanavar, a 31-year-old dentist, repeatedly asked doctors in a Galway hospital to terminate her 17-week fetus. Though she was literally in the process of miscarrying the fetus, the hospital refused to take any actions as long as there was a ...

By Sesali B. • 11 years ago

Ireland passes its first abortion law

Talk about baby steps (no pun intended). Not even a year ago, Savita Halappanavar died after being refused a life-saving abortion in Ireland. Her story brought international attention to exactly how strict the staunchly Catholic nation’s abortion ban was.

In 1992 the Supreme Court did rule that abortions were allowed in cases where the pregnancy was life-threatening. Unfortunately this decision was too vague and not enough to save Halappanavar’s life. This is why the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill was so important. The bill passed in the first vote earlier this month and President Michael D. Higgins signed it into law today.

“The law permits abortions to alleviate life-threatening conditions, including a woman’s own threat to commit ...

By Katie Halper • 11 years ago

Chile won’t let pregnant 11-year-old raped by her mother’s boyfriend have an abortion

She is known as Belén. She is eleven years old and 14 weeks pregnant. She was raped repeatedly by her mother’s boyfriend over the course of two years. The mother claims the relationship that started when her daughter was NINE was consensual. Thankfully, Belén’s grandmother doesn’t see it that way, and she alerted the police to the abuse, which the boyfriend admitted to. There are several reasons even an anti-choicer would think Belén deserves an abortion:

She is eleven years old. She is a rape victim. She is the victim of incest. The pregnancy poses a serious health risk to Belen. The health of the fetus is at risk

Belén’s doctors want to terminate. But they are afraid to. Because Belén happens to live in ...

By Jos Truitt • 11 years ago

Irish lawmakers vote to allow abortion in life threatening cases

Irish lawmakers voted today in favor of a bill that would allow abortion in cases where the pregnancy is life threatening. Abortion is otherwise illegal in Ireland. The Supreme Court ruled in 1992 that abortions are allowed to save the parent’s life. But the new bill is necessary because the court’s ruling hasn’t been effective in allowing abortion even in life threatening cases. We saw the tragedy Ireland’s abortion ban can lead to last year, when Savita Halappanavar died because she was denied a life saving abortion following an incomplete miscarriage.

The bill passed its first vote today, 138-24, and faces final approval next week. Even if it becomes law, this bill is only a first step. Restricting abortion ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 11 years ago

We already lost Savita in Ireland. Don’t let Beatriz die in El Salvador.

Ed. note: This is a guest post by Juliana Britto Schwartz. By day, Juliana is a student at University of California, Santa Cruz. By night, she is a Latina feminist blogger at Julianabritto.com, where she writes about reproductive health justice, immigration, and feminist movements in Latin America.

You all remember Savita Halappanavar, right? Well, the world is looking at another Savita right now, and the only thing standing between her and life is a group of Salvadoran politicians.

Savita Halappanavar was a pregnant woman living in Ireland who was denied a life-saving abortion because her doctors could still detect a fetal heartbeat and were therefore required by law not to terminate the pregnancy. She died of blood poisoning while her husband watched.

“Beatriz” is ...