35,000 march in Dublin against Irish abortion bill

Bearing rosary beads and placards declaring “Kill the bill! Not the child,” more than 35,000 anti-abortion activists marched Saturday through Dublin to demand that the Irish government scrap plans to legalize terminations for women in life-threatening pregnancies.

Demonstrators from across Ireland, a predominantly Catholic island of 6.5 million, marched for two hours through the capital to Leinster House, the parliament building, where lawmakers next week are expected pass the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill. Speakers demanded that the government put its bill to a national referendum. “Let us vote!” the crowd chanted.

The two-year-old coalition government of Prime Minister Enda Kenny drafted the bill following last year’s death of a miscarrying woman in an Irish hospital. Three investigations since have determined that Savita Halappanavar, a 31-year-old Indian dentist, died from blood poisoning one week after admission for a miscarriage. Doctors denied her pleas for an abortion, even though her uterus had ruptured, because the 17-week-old fetus still had a heartbeat. By the time it stopped, investigations concluded, Halappanavar already had contracted a lethal dose of septicemia. …

Savita Halappanavar died from a bacterial infection. She and her husband were advised that termination may be necessary. There is nothing in the law that prevented her from receiving any treatment ("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.", Article 40.3.3° of the Irish Const., http://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/attached_files/html%20files/Constitution%20of%20Ireland%20%28Eng%29Nov2004.htm). The anti-life crowd has seized upon this case to advance their agenda.

From The Final Report of the Health Services Executive:

Page 4:
The cause of death established by the Coroner’s Inquest in this case in April, 2013 was: “1(a)Fulminant septic shock from E. coli bacteremia. 1(b) Ascending genital tract sepsis. 1(c) Miscarriage at 17 weeks gestation associated with chorioamnionitis. (2) There were no co-morbidities”
Page 76:
The investigation team considers that the situation was complicated by the difficulty associated with the application of the law in Ireland relating to the termination of a pregnancy. The investigation team is satisfied that concern about the law, whether clear or not, impacted on the exercise of clinical professional judgement.
O&G Consultant stated at interview that the focus of the team at this time was to identify the source of infection. The consultant advised the patient and her husband that a termination might have to be considered. O&G Consultant 1 added Metronidazole 500 mgs intravenously eight hourly to the patients prescription and this was commenced immediately at 08.30hrs. The patient was to continue on Augmentin (Coamoxiclav).

The report is available here:

http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2013/06/savita-halappanavar-hse-report.pdf

There have been years that they've gotten close to a half-million attending the March for Life. You can be forgiven for not knowing that, because the media ignores it every year.

EVERY conservative gathering is minimized by the media. Hubby and I took part in the Tea Party March on Washington in 2009. Estimates from not only organizers, but from some Park Police sources (unofficially, of course) estimated almost a million marchers. We got back to the hotel, turned on the TV, and we told that there were about 15,000 marchers participating. FoxNews said 'tens of thousands' of marchers. None of the networks gave any real coverage to it.

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