The end of constitutional protection for abortions in the United States polarised activists around the world, emboldening abortion opponents even as advocates of abortion rights worried it could threaten recent moves toward legalization in their countries.
The US Supreme Court on Friday decided by six votes to three to overturn the 50-year-old Roe vs Wade judgement that guaranteed access to abortion across the country. The decision means that all questions of legality and access to abortion will now go to America’s individual states, some of whom immediately put abortion bans into place.
In this backdrop, the story of Indian-origin Savita Halappanavar’s death in Ireland comes back in the spotlight after 10 years.
How did Savita Halappanavar die?
Savita Halappanavar (31), a dentist, and her husband Praveen, an engineer, both natives of India, were living and working in County Galway at the time of her death in October 2012.
She went to the University Hospital Galway complaining of back pain on October 21 and the doctors said she was having a miscarriage. The doctors also found that her foetus would not survive.
Hospital authorities and doctors denied her an abortion as Ireland, she was told, is “a Catholic country,” and it would be illegal to terminate the pregnancy while the fetus still had a heartbeat. She waited days until the heartbeat stopped.
The contents of her womb were removed on October 27. “When she came out she was talking okay but she was very sick,” Praveen told media. “That’s the last time I spoke to her.”
Savita’s condition drastically worsened. She was diagnosed with sepsis and was critically ill. She entered ICU, then two days later they said her heart, kidneys, and liver weren’t functioning and she passed away the same night. The cause of her death was noted as multi-organ failure following sepsis and E. coli infection.
The Aftermath of Savita Halappavanar’s death
The news of Savita’s death overnight sparked a wave of anger on Irish social media and widespread outrage across the world. “My reaction was outrage. Shame that this happened in my country,” one protester in Ireland who was six months pregnant had told Reuters. “It’s scary to think that medical treatment was denied.”
Thousands of people rallied outside Ireland’s parliament in the following weeks to demand strict abortion rules be eased after her death.
In India too, the anger was palpable. Halappanavar’s parents demanded an “international probe” and said Irish law on abortion should be changed. The Delhi Catholic Archdiocese said the mother’s life should not have been risked though abortion was a complete no for them.
Political parties termed it a violation of human rights and demanded the government to direct External Affairs Ministry to ask Irish government to act on the issue and ensure justice to the family.
After years of rallying, In May 2018, voters in Ireland chose to legalise abortion in a historic referendum. The new law allows abortion on request to 12 weeks and beyond 12 weeks in a few, very limited circumstances
Roe vs Wade: anger and solidarity
Following the judgement, a crowd of hundreds gathered outside US’ highest court. “In order for women and birthing people to live full lives as human beings they must have self-determination and that cannot happen if abortion is illegal,” Chance, a mother to a daughter, told CNBC.
The Democratic governors of California, Oregon and Washington issued a joint video message declaring that the West Coast will “remain a place where reproductive health care will be accessible and protected.”
Meanwhile, Liberal states in America have pledged to act as safe havens for women seeking abortions as providers ratchet up capacity in anticipation of a surge of patients from areas where the procedure will be banned.
“We know that the need is going to skyrocket,” Sarah Moeller of the Brigid Alliance, a New York-based group that provides travel, accommodation and other support for women looking for an abortion, told AFP.
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