Savita Halappanavar and abortion in Ireland
A topic I've ranted about before. I'm so angry and disgusted that it's taken me a week to be coherent.
This happened in my home town, about a 5 minute walk from where I grew up. I heard about it on Monday morning, and while I wish I could say it was a surprise, in truth it's a tragedy that's been 30 years in the making. Abortion rights in Ireland have a long and bitter history.
I am absolutely certain that with a different doctor, or in a different hospital (although this hospital is not a church-owned one), Savita could have had an abortion as soon as she asked for one.
Strictly speaking, abortion is legal in Ireland when a woman's life is at risk, but there are no legal processes in place to determine when that is. Abortions certainly take place, but there's a policy of official ignorance. The Medical Council which governs doctors issues guidelines which explicitly state that when there is little chance of the baby surviving, "it may be necessary to terminate the pregnancy to protect the life of the mother."
This story has dominated Irish news this week. There have been protest marches, candlelit vigils, and three different inquiries set up. The Irish Times has good coverage of both this tragedy and the background to it. Various court cases mean the government was in the process of clarifying things, but I've no doubt it would have been yet another evasion of the issue. That's no longer an option.
I'm sure situations like this have arisen in Ireland before, possibly leading to an abortion or possibly leading to the mother's death. Either way, there would have been a lot of social pressure on an Irish family to keep quiet. The difference this time is that Praveen Halappanavar is willing to stand up and not let his wife's suffering and death happen in silence.
And in detail:
In 1983, an unpopular government introduced an amendment to the Constitution that stated: "The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right.” They introduced it partly to curry support with religious voters, even though abortion was already illegal in Ireland.
I was 14 at the time, just starting to pay attention to politics, and it was all the country talked about for months.
In 1992, there was a court case aimed at preventing a child rape victim travelling to the UK for an abortion. The Supreme Court ruled that a woman is entitled to an abortion in Ireland if there is "a real and substantial risk" to her life (including by suicide) but not if the risk is to her health alone. After that, another two constitutional referendums were passed that stated explicitly that no-one could be prevented from travelling to another country for an abortion, and that information on abortion services in other countries was legal in Ireland. A proposed amendment that sought to ban a threat of suicide as grounds for abortion was defeated.
Between 1998 and 2000, there were various hearing and discussions at a parliamentary level aimed at "clarifying" the situation. That resulted in yet another referendum in 2002, which would again have prevented abortions in the case of a risk of suicide and brought in supporting legislation clarifying when an abortion was necessary for the woman's life. This amendment was also defeated.
In 2010, a case was brought to the European Court of Human Rights, arguing that the right to privacy in the European Convention on Human Rights would allow abortion in Ireland, as Roe vs. Wade here in the US. The ECHR ruled that wasn't so, but that Ireland does breach the Convention by not having clear guidelines in place for when abortion is legal.
The current coalition government was elected 18 months ago, with the main party opposing legalising abortion. However, the government did set up a group to examine what needed to be done to satisfy the ECHR's ruling. That group was due to report back at the end of October - it did so this week, but the report has yet to be published. Leaks suggest it recommends that rather than going through parliament, the Minister for Health should draw up regulations about when abortion is necessary, and set up a panel of experts to rule on any application for an abortion.
The only just option is abortion on demand, funded by the public health care system - i.e., free like all other maternity services. Arriving at that will take at least one constitutional amendment. Otherwise, we'll be here again.
This entry was originally posted at http://gurrier.dreamwidth.org/83685.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
This happened in my home town, about a 5 minute walk from where I grew up. I heard about it on Monday morning, and while I wish I could say it was a surprise, in truth it's a tragedy that's been 30 years in the making. Abortion rights in Ireland have a long and bitter history.
I am absolutely certain that with a different doctor, or in a different hospital (although this hospital is not a church-owned one), Savita could have had an abortion as soon as she asked for one.
Strictly speaking, abortion is legal in Ireland when a woman's life is at risk, but there are no legal processes in place to determine when that is. Abortions certainly take place, but there's a policy of official ignorance. The Medical Council which governs doctors issues guidelines which explicitly state that when there is little chance of the baby surviving, "it may be necessary to terminate the pregnancy to protect the life of the mother."
This story has dominated Irish news this week. There have been protest marches, candlelit vigils, and three different inquiries set up. The Irish Times has good coverage of both this tragedy and the background to it. Various court cases mean the government was in the process of clarifying things, but I've no doubt it would have been yet another evasion of the issue. That's no longer an option.
I'm sure situations like this have arisen in Ireland before, possibly leading to an abortion or possibly leading to the mother's death. Either way, there would have been a lot of social pressure on an Irish family to keep quiet. The difference this time is that Praveen Halappanavar is willing to stand up and not let his wife's suffering and death happen in silence.
And in detail:
In 1983, an unpopular government introduced an amendment to the Constitution that stated: "The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right.” They introduced it partly to curry support with religious voters, even though abortion was already illegal in Ireland.
I was 14 at the time, just starting to pay attention to politics, and it was all the country talked about for months.
In 1992, there was a court case aimed at preventing a child rape victim travelling to the UK for an abortion. The Supreme Court ruled that a woman is entitled to an abortion in Ireland if there is "a real and substantial risk" to her life (including by suicide) but not if the risk is to her health alone. After that, another two constitutional referendums were passed that stated explicitly that no-one could be prevented from travelling to another country for an abortion, and that information on abortion services in other countries was legal in Ireland. A proposed amendment that sought to ban a threat of suicide as grounds for abortion was defeated.
Between 1998 and 2000, there were various hearing and discussions at a parliamentary level aimed at "clarifying" the situation. That resulted in yet another referendum in 2002, which would again have prevented abortions in the case of a risk of suicide and brought in supporting legislation clarifying when an abortion was necessary for the woman's life. This amendment was also defeated.
In 2010, a case was brought to the European Court of Human Rights, arguing that the right to privacy in the European Convention on Human Rights would allow abortion in Ireland, as Roe vs. Wade here in the US. The ECHR ruled that wasn't so, but that Ireland does breach the Convention by not having clear guidelines in place for when abortion is legal.
The current coalition government was elected 18 months ago, with the main party opposing legalising abortion. However, the government did set up a group to examine what needed to be done to satisfy the ECHR's ruling. That group was due to report back at the end of October - it did so this week, but the report has yet to be published. Leaks suggest it recommends that rather than going through parliament, the Minister for Health should draw up regulations about when abortion is necessary, and set up a panel of experts to rule on any application for an abortion.
The only just option is abortion on demand, funded by the public health care system - i.e., free like all other maternity services. Arriving at that will take at least one constitutional amendment. Otherwise, we'll be here again.
This entry was originally posted at http://gurrier.dreamwidth.org/83685.html. Please comment there using OpenID.