President Michael D. Higgins signed the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act yesterday, making abortions in Ireland legal under circumstances in which the mother’s life is at risk.
The event prompting such ‘life-saving’ abortion legislation was the death of Savita Halappanavar. A year ago, on October 28, 31-year old and 17 weeks into her pregnancy, Halappanavar died of septicemia in Galway University Hospital. According to BBC News, her family stated that she had repeatedly asked for an abortion as she was having a miscarriage and in terrible pain, and her husband went further to say that her doctors refused to do so because the fetus still had a heartbeat.
The Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act is designed to avoid tragedies like these in the future. NPR reports that not only is a woman entitled an abortion in cases of medical emergencies, but also when suicide is a factor.
The Pro Life campaign responded to the signing of these abortion rights into law, with spokeswoman Caroline Simons telling The Belfast Telegraph, “The Government brought forward this law in the full knowledge that abortion is not a treatment for suicidal feelings[…]This is a very sad day for our country. For the first time in our history, it is now legal to deliberately target the life of an innocent human being.”
Photo courtesy of The Irish Labour Party, Wikimedia Commons