The young Indian dentist's tragic miscarriage may provide ammunition for those seeking action on a political taboo When I got a call late on Wednesday night, 7 November, from a contact telling me about a woman who had died in hospital in the west of Ireland -- having been miscarrying an unviable foetus and having asked repeatedly for a termination -- I suspected it could be a big story. If it were true, the political and constitutional implications for Ireland were enormous. What I was not prepared for was how the death of this young Indian Hindu woman would cause consternation across the world. Abortion is absolutely the most emotive, divisive issue in Irish society, cleaving not only political parties, but workplaces, groups of friends and even families. Successive governments have avoided confronting it, avoided its reality in Irish society -- more than 3000 women a year leave Ireland to have an abortion, usually in England -- and avoided acknowledging it through the provision of legislative leadership. The death of a woman in such circumstances was probably inevitable given the lack of clarity about when an abortion is or is not legal here. Savita Halappanavar's death has been explosive. That a woman had died in this fashion was all my contact knew. No name, no dates, but a number for someone who knew a little more. I called that person, who knew only that her name was Savita or Sabita "or something like that". By the power of Google and with the words "Savita" and ...
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