Ann Marie Hourihane has an interesting piece in the Irish Times on how awkward it is for her to be in the US right now, because of all the shocked questions about how that hospital could have let Savita Halappanavar die rather than perform an abortion to complete the miscarriage that was already happening.
Perhaps America is tired of Ireland’s excuses. The sad bewilderment among liberals here, when they heard the news of Savita Halappanavar’s death in a Galway hospital in October, is worse than any aggression. The thing is, Americans just can’t understand why surgical treatment for a miscarriage can be withheld from a woman on the grounds that the foetal heart is still beating, when medical staff have already agreed that the pregnancy has no chance of survival, as is claimed to have happened in this case. This is proving rather difficult to explain.
Clearly very few Americans know this. That really needs to change.
It is surprising how much Americans know about Irish abortion law, or the lack of it. “The mother’s life has priority, right?” they ask. Since Wednesday there has been no clear answer to that question. Is it, “We would like to think so”? Is it, “Well, it depends on where you are in Ireland, and also where in Ireland the pregnant woman is at the time”? Or is it “Er, we’d prefer not to think about that, if you don’t mind. Now bung us a couple of call centres, and leave us in peace”?
But that’s true here too. The ERD says no, the mother’s life does not have priority no matter what. The US Council of Catholic Bishops says no, definitely not, and it tried to force St Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix to sign a written statement agreeing to that. The hospital refused. Not all hospitals refuse! And there is apparently no oversight, no enforcement, no one making sure that all hospitals give the mother’s life priority.
Americans really need to know this.
I have had arguments with Catholic friends who insist that the mother will always be saved at a Catholic hospital (anywhere in the world, according to them). I present them with evidence of cases right here at home and abroad, and they just can’t see them. I must have made them up. After all, I’m not Catholic, so why should I be believer? Even worse, I don’t understand that God is real, he loves me, and if he tells the pope to let me die an agonizing death, it’s only because he loves me so much he can’t bear to see me sin.
lastest burning up the irish twitter #savita is the bishops dishonest excuses, and her husband is raising objctions bc the government inquiry panel is packed with staff from UhG…. isnt there a saying abt foxes & henhouses??
no matter what Rep terry England said, they dont treat suffering cows this way…..not if they care about preventing maternal mortality!!
http://www.cvmbs.colostate.edu/ilm/projects/neonatal/Calving%20and%20Handling%20Calving%20Difficulties.pdf
the cow analogy above in comments is really powerful and sad to me. people seem to be able to be rational when the “survivability” of a valuable piece of livestock is at stake … for actual human women? not so much … that tells me that things won’t change until irrational practitioners are handed resounding monetary defeats, time and again. punitive and educational.