By Dave Andrusko
When what is supposedly told a pregnant woman in great distress parrots what pro-abortionists would love to have you believe is typical behavior by “cold-hearted” pro-lifers, your ears instantly perk up and you say to yourself, “that is awfully convenient.”
In this case, of course, I am referring to the tragic death last month of Savita Halappanavar, which pro-abortionists have used as a rallying cry to gut Ireland’s pro-life laws. She had been 17 weeks pregnant when she went to the hospital’s maternity unit with back pain.
Very simply, pro-abortionists maintain that she was diagnosed as having a miscarriage, repeatedly asked for an abortion which the hospital staff denied.
Why? According to pro-life commentator, Michael Kirke, allegedly because doctors at the hospital “said that they detected a foetal heartbeat and that Irish law ruled out a termination. Further reports say someone told Savita that this was because ‘Ireland is a Catholic country.’” Mrs. Halappanava died October 28 of septicaemia.
The point that has lost in the controversy is, as Kirke wrote, “Irish law – and the Irish Constitution – prohibits the procedure of abortion of unborn babies in the womb but it does not prohibit evacuation of the womb where the process of a miscarriage has already begun – or where a baby in the womb has already died. Such procedures are regularly carried out in Irish hospital.” That is why the hospital’s conduct is under scrutiny in two separate investigations.
But as Lifezine, the Irish pro-life organization, explains, Kitty Holland, the Irish Times journalist who broke the story has “admitted that the facts of the case are still completely unclear. She also conceded that the central claim of her article, that the Halappanavars made repeated requests for an abortion, may ultimately prove to be unfounded. Holland had earlier acknowledged that the relevance of abortion to the case ‘has yet to be established.’” (See “Savita Journalist Admits Story Muddled – Maybe No Abortion Request.”)
Last week Holland admitted to Marc Coleman of “Newstalk radio’s Coleman at Large” that “there were problems with Praveen Halappanavar’s account of things, and that there were differences between what he had said when she originally interviewed him over the phone in India and when she interviewed him later in Galway,” according to Lifezine.
And the truth about his very unfortunate death matters. It is affecting Irish public opinion, although not as unambiguously as the highly pro-abortion Irish press insists.
The poll, conducted by Red C for the Sunday Business Post on a sample of over 1,000 adults nationwide, found that 85% people said they supported legislation to allow abortion where the mother’s life is threatened, including by suicide. However, in a separate question, 63% said they would support a constitutional amendment to exclude “a threat of suicide as a grounds for abortion, but still allowing abortion where the mother’s life is threatened outside of suicide.” (See http://redcresearch.ie/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/SBP-2nd-Dec-2012-Poll-Report.pdf.)
The Irish Times reported, “Dr, Ruth Cullen of the Pro Life Campaign welcomed the “high level of support for a constitutional amendment to limit the X case” [a controversial 1992 Supreme Court decision] and said it was ‘very apparent’ that there was ‘huge confusion about the distinction between necessary medical treatments in pregnancy and abortion.’”
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