Free Republic

Savita Halappanavar would be really proud as she has helped a lot of women, her best friend said this weekend as the tenth anniversary of her death approaches. “It should never have happened. She should be here today. We couldn’t accept it for years, we still can’t accept it really,” said Shilpa Rose Renjith at her home in Galway. Halappanavar died from severe sepsis at University Hospital Galway ten years ago this Friday after her request for an abortion was denied on legal grounds. She was 17 weeks pregnant with a baby girl and just 31 years old, with no...

After the Supreme Court’s historic decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, some doctors are highlighting the 2012 death of a pregnant woman in Ireland and warning that the same thing could happen on a large scale in the United States. Dr. Savita Halappanavar, a 31-year-old Indian-born dentist, died in 2012 in Galway, on Ireland’s west coast, after she was denied an abortion by doctors who cited the country’s strict laws, despite there being no chance of her baby’s survival, according to Ireland’s official report on the case. Her death shook the foundations of the traditionally conservative and predominantly Roman Catholic...

Her story was one that galvanised a movement; her face became a symbol of that movement. Savita Halappanavar died from infection after miscarrying her first child in an Irish hospital in October 2012. Her family said she pleaded for a termination during the miscarriage, but medical staff refused her requests because there was still a foetal heartbeat. Mrs Halappanavar's death caused international controversy and sparked a campaign to have Ireland's abortion law liberalised. Her story was one that galvanised a movement; her face became a symbol of that movement. Savita Halappanavar died from infection after miscarrying her first child in...