EJ Graff is also angry.

Savita Halappanavar died because an entire country decided to sentimentalize every clump of dividing cells that might or might not be able to develop into a full human being. In fact, in this case, the clump of cells’ only actual effect was to destroy the life of its host, a real human being. As her husband told another newspaper:

How can you let a young woman go to save a baby who will die anyway? Savita could have had more babies. … It has been a terrible few weeks, very hard to understand how this could happen in the 21^st century, very hard to explain to her family. If it had happened in the UK or India, the whole thing would have been over in a few hours.

And he told Reuters, “I am still in shock. It is hard to believe that religion can mean somebody’s life.”

Actually it’s not hard, if you’ve been paying attention…in the US and Ireland and Nicaragua and other priest-ridden countries.

An academic at USCF just released longitudinal research called the Turnaway Study, which looks at what happened to women who couldn’t get abortions because they were too far along—and compared their mental, physical, and economic health to similar women who did have abortions. You’ll be absolutely shocked to learn that the women who had abortions fared much better than the women who were forced to carry the pregnancy to term. Their mental health was better. Their physical health was better. Their economic circumstances were more stable. They had fewer regrets.

Yes indeed, surprise surprise surprise. How astonishing, when the whole point of the right to abortion is the ability to decide not to do something that would make a huge major far-reaching change in your life that you don’t want to make. How astonishing to find that most people have some clue about what they want to do and what they don’t want to do.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Emer O’Toole is from beautiful Galway. She was born in the hospital where Savita Halappanavar died because that hospital refused to treat her until too late. She is ashamed.

This is a Catholic country. If these were indeed the words used by the doctors, then the hospital did not feel the need to sugarcoat its rationale with references to Halappanavar’s psychological health, or the wellbeing of her foetus. Its ideology was not veiled – as Youth Defence, Precious Life and Ireland’s other powerful anti-abortion lobbyists have learned to do – in the language of care and concern for women. The rationale was not cloaked in academic arguments about the moment when human life begins.

It’s hard to veil refusal to save a woman’s life in the language of care and concern for women.

I know what it’s like to try to speak out against anti-choice hegemony in Ireland. I know how hard it is to even form pro-choice opinions at all. Like 95% of people schooled in Ireland, I had a Catholic education and was heavily propagandised against abortion. More, I had to navigate the biased information offered by the Irish press. RTÉ, our national broadcaster, did not even report on a 2,000-strong pro-choice march in Dublin earlier this year, while it continues to cover anti-abortion movements in the provinces. Teachers and journalists, this is your fault too.

It’s the same in the US, you know. How often do you see sympathetic characters in movies or tv shows get an abortion? How often do you see sympathetic characters in movies or tv shows decide to continue an unwanted pregnancy? I don’t know about you, but my answer to the first would have to be “never” and to the second “often.”

To her family, I want to say: I am ashamed, I am culpable, and I am sorry. For every letter to my local politician I didn’t write, for every protest I didn’t join, for keeping quiet about abortion rights in the company of conservative relations and friends, for becoming complacent, for thinking that Ireland was changing, for not working hard enough to secure that change, for failing to create a society in which your wife, your daughter, your sister was able to access the care that she needed: I am sorry. You must think that we are barbarians.

Again – it’s the same here. Bishops force hospitals to refuse to do abortions no matter what; religious hospital administrations decide that on their own; doctors and nurses refuse to do their jobs. The state looks the other way. Religion governs medical issues in many circumstances. This has got to stop. We have to work harder to make it stop.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Remember the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas?

Remember the destruction of ancient mausoleums in Mali just a few months ago?

Now it’s the pyramids and the Sphinx.

Photo by Keith Yahl

 A jihadist fella called Sheikh Murgan Salem al-Gohary says they’re next.

Gohary, a jihadist with self-professed links to the Taliban, called for the “destruction of the Sphinx and the Giza Pyramids in Egypt,” drawing ties between the Egyptian relics and Buddha statues.

The Islamist, previously twice-sentenced under former President Hosni Mubarak for advocating violence, called on Muslims to remove such “idols.”

“All Muslims are charged with applying the teachings of Islam to remove such idols, as we did in Afghanistan when we destroyed the Buddha statues,” he said on Saturday during a television interview on an Egyptian private channel, widely watched by Egyptian and Arab audiences.

“God ordered Prophet Mohammed to destroy idols,” he added. “When I was with the Taliban we destroyed the statue of Buddha, something the government failed to do.”

His comments came a day after thousands of ultraconservative Islamists gathered in Tahrir Square to call for the strict application of Sharia law in the new constitution.

Theocracy hits one out of the park again.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Here’s a nice one from 1998, via Stacy. Not Ireland – Louisiana.

Michelle Lee knows she should not have another child. Her heart pumps so weakly and  irregularly that she has waited 2 1/2 years for a new one. The strain that  pregnancy puts on the body, her doctors had sternly warned her for years, might  kill her.

So last month, when she discovered she had accidentally gotten pregnant, Lee,  26, faced an agonizing prospect: saving her fetus or saving herself. She loves  babies. Yet, finally, she went to Louisiana State University  Medical Center, the century-old hospital whose cardiologists tend to her heart,  and said she wanted an abortion.

The hospital refused.

A committee of five LSU doctors concluded that Lee’s chance of dying was not  greater than 50 percent. And under Louisiana law, a public hospital could not  perform an abortion on Lee unless her life were endangered. They decided her  case didn’t meet the test.

Meh. 50 percent. Those are pretty good odds.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Jill Filipovic on the death of Savita Halappanavar.

She died after three and a half days of excruciating pain. She died after repeatedly begging for an end to the pregnancy that was poisoning her. Her death would have been avoided if she had been given an abortion when she asked for it – when it was clear she was miscarrying, and that non-intervention would put her at risk. But the foetus, which had no chance of survival, still had a heartbeat. Its right to life quite literally trumped hers.

It wasn’t even (as I’ve seen some mistakenly say) an attempt to save the fetus. It was just a refusal to act because the doomed fetus still had a pulse. It was just a determined decision to let both die rather than save one – the adult one with existing hopes and plans and work and people who loved her.

Just two months ago, a consortium of Irish doctors got together to declare abortion medically unnecessary. They claimed that abortion is never needed to save a pregnant woman’s life, and stated: “We confirm that the prohibition of abortion does not affect, in any way, the availability of optimal care to pregnant women.”

Tell that to Savita Halappanavar, you evil bastards.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Ok I’ve found a good thing. We shouldn’t need it, but since we do, it’s a good thing that it exists. The Secular Medical Forum.

The Secular Medical Forum campaigns for a secular approach to current major health issues.

We are opposed to religious influences in Medicine where these affect the manner in which medical practice is performed. We campaign to protect patients from the harm caused by the imposition of religious values and activities on people who do not share the same values and beliefs.

The SMF directs itself to the improvement of the human condition. SMF members do not recognise the assumed authority of religious bodies and we challenge their traditional privileges in healthcare service provision or decision-making.

It commented on the death of Savita Halappanavar.

The Secular Medical Forum believes that this death could have been prevented if Ireland’s law on abortion focused upon the need of vulnerable patients, rather than upon Catholic doctrine.  The SMF believes that healthcare should be provided free from the intrusion of religion.  Bioethics is hindered, not helped, by relying upon religious sentiments.

The SMF is aware that women around the world suffer due to the imposition of religious beliefs which takes away their autonomy over their own bodies.  If this case had occurred in the United Kingdom, it would have been legal for Mrs Halappanavar to have a safe abortion.  However in the UK there is the continual threat to abortion rights by religious groups who wish to inflict their particular beliefs upon other people.  The SMF defends the right of religious people to hold their beliefs; however, patients must remain free from unwelcome religious interference.

The SMF hopes that Ireland’s abortion laws are reformed so that this tragedy is not repeated.

I wonder if the US has an equivalent organization. It certainly needs one.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Via PZ, another doctor weighs in, making it very clear what the treatment for Savita Halappanavar should have been. It’s medical knowledge from an OB-GYN plus Jen Gunter has actually had the same complication herself.

Not only do I know these scenarios backwards and forwards as an OB/GYN, I had ruptured membranes in my own pregnancy at 22 weeks, a rescue cerclage, and then sepsis. I know how bad it can be.

As Ms. Halappanavar died of an infection, one that would have been brewing for several days if not longer, the fact that a termination was delayed for any reason is malpractice. Infection must always be suspected whenever, preterm labor, premature rupture of the membranes, or advanced premature cervical dilation occurs (one of the scenarios that would have brought Ms. Halappanavar to the hospital).

Read the whole post. It’s informative and infuriating.

There’s an update.

Since posting this piece I learned that Ms. Halappanavar’s widower reported that she was leaking amniotic fluid and was fully dilated when first evaluated. There is no medically defensible position for doing anything other than optimal pain control and hastening delivery by the safest means possible.

Ben Goldacre wonders if any of the doctors involved were also involved in the recent statement that abortion is never needed to protect the life of the mother.  It looks as if the answer is yes.

…one of the organisers of the conference was Eamon O’Dwyer, professor emeritus of obstetrics and gynaecology at NUI Galway, which is attached to University Hospital in Galway, where Savita Halappanavar died.

A response -

Certainly Eamon O’Dwyer is an interesting character. He’s at least 85 years old. He was raised by the Christian Brothers and has been happy to defend them in print. http://www.irishsalem.com/religious-congregations/christian-brothers/defendin…. He was performing symphysiotomies until quite recently http://business.highbeam.com/5900/article-1G1-221653495/men-butchered-us-thre…and is generally serious God-squad.

It would interesting to know how much influence he has on the policies of the hospital which is not, apparently, overtly religious.

Jesus H fucking christ.

Update: the post I did on that conference last month.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

On Michael Nugent’s post about Savita, a midwife named Clare insisted that an abortion wouldn’t have saved Savita’s life.

This case is very clearly nothing to do with abortion. Pro “choicers” have simply seized upon it and dishonestly pretended that abortion would have saved her life. This scenario is not unusual in obstetrics and whether she aborted or not, what she needed was close monitoring and  timely, effective prophylactic antibiotics. There are a number of similar cases of women who have also died of septicaemia following legal abortion.  Had this unfortunate woman aborted, precisely the same risks of infection would have remained.

And

The miscarriage didn’t kill Savita, septicaemia did. Septicaemia is also a major risk following abortion. Abortion does not stop people dying of septicaemia.

As to your descibing Savita as being ” in the middle of a long miscarriage” the likelihood is that she was in the middle of a *threatened” miscarriage. Obstetric terminology does not refer to a pregnancy as a miscarriage until fetal demise. Until that point miscarriage is *threatened*. Under ordinary circumstances a woman with a threatened miscarriage is given appropriate care and monitoring in order to prevent such needless death. Here in the UK where abortion is perfectly legal, women with ruptured membranes and threatened misc are not offered abortion in case they might develop septicaemia and die. That would be absurd.

She got her head handed to her, along with an even clearer picture of what happened to Savita.

From EL -

As a medical person, you should know the difference between premature rupture of membranes in a viable fetus, and in a 17 wk pregnancy. Finally,  you know, or should know if you are a midwife as you claim, that an open cervix and leaking amniotic fluid is a risk for amnionitis, and the longer the duration, the more increased risk. Remember the old saying “never let the sun set twice on a laboring woman”? Since there was no chance of viability, antibiotics along with evacuation of the uterus was the correct treatment. Especially for someone in severe pain.

From Dr Kitty -

Clare, she had PPROM at 17 weeks with cervical dilation. BY DEFINITION this pregnancy was not viable. Even if the cervix was not dilated, second trimester ROM leads to fatal lung hypoplasia. Even if there was no ROM an open cervix will not close. It was an incomplete miscarriage.

Whether FH was present or not is IRRELEVANT, the treatment of a second trimester incomplete miscarriage is to evacuate the uterus ASAP to reduce the risk of bleeding and infection. The longer the cervix is dilated with ROM the higher the risk of chorioamnionitis developing and the greater the chance of sepsis. She was septic well before ERPOC was even performed, so it was too little, too late by then.

The treatment of chorioamnionitis requires prompt removal of the infected tissue, i.e. the membranes and placenta. IV antibiotics alone do not cut it.

She requested the pregnancy be ended. Her life was at greater risk the longer she remained pregnant.

If she had had a D&E or medically induced miscarriage the day the pregnancy was found to be non viable there is EVERY chance she would still be alive.

And a followup -

Clare you’re a MW, so your field is normal, uncomplicated, birth. I assume you’re quite good at that.

Your knowledge of pregnancy complications is not as good, so I’ll help a little.

A threatened miscarriage is when there is bleeding in the fist trimester without cervical dilation. Bleeding in the second or third trimester without cervical dilation is a placental abruption. When the cervix is dilated it is an inevitable miscarriage. When there is a significant ROM before 24 weeks there usually isn’t sufficient amniotic fluid to allow foetal lung development, leading to lung hypoplasia and death.

Women with second trimester ROM in the UK are absolutely offered TOP, because the pregnancy is considered non viable and the risk of developing chorioamnionitis is high.

Women with second trimester cervical dilation and prolonged very preterm labour ARE offered TOP, because the cervix is not designed to stay open for days on end, the uterus is not designed to contract for days on end, they are in pain, and the pregnancy is going to end before viability regardless.

Do feel free to double check everything I’ve typed against your gynaecology textbook and the RCOG green tops.

Decisive, I think.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Una Mullaly at the Irish Times has collected coverage of the death of Savita Halappanavar.

Future plans -

A vigil and protest will be held at City Hall in Belfast on Thursday (15th) at 5.30pm.

In Galway, where Halappanavar died, a candlelit vigil is planned this Saturday (17th) at 5pm.

A vigil will also take place in Dublin at 4pm on Saturday. At the protest on Wednesday evening, speakers urged those in attendance to gather on Saturday and tell their friends and family to do the same.

In London was organised to take place outside the Irish embassy at 6pm.

Some of the international coverage -

The LA Times headlines their report “Death of woman denied an abortion causes uproar in Ireland”.

The New Statesman has a comment piece, with Sarah Ditum writing “For too long, Irish women have been the victims of cruel politics and heartless zealots: it is time to listen to the campaigners who speak for the simple truth that women’s lives matter.”

Gawker posted the front page of Wednesday’s Irish Times.

Cosmopolitan writes a ‘what if’ report saying, “Sure, this took place in Ireland—not the U.S.—but with some American politicians pushing to remove the right to choose, it’s a scary sign of what life could be like for women in the U.S. if they get their way.”

Oh shit – Cosmo – you’re underinformed. Some Catholic hospitals in the US already do what University Hospital Galway did. Life is already like that for some women in the US. Cosmo, please Google the Bishop of Phoenix.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

It’s not just Ireland. Don’t think that. It’s Poland, it’s Nicaragua…it’s the US.

A recent study entitled “Assessing hospital polices & practices regarding ectopic pregnancy & miscarriage management” investigated whether and how doctors’ treatment decisions regarding these potentially dangerous conditions are affected by working in religiously-affiliated hospitals.1 This Study focuses on Catholic hospitals as the largest religiously-affiliated provider in the United States,2 and uncovers disturbing examples of treatment practices that increase the odds of medical complications that place women’s lives and health at risk. The religiously-based limitations on doctors’ treatment of serious pregnancy complications documented in the Study contravene core principles underlying federal, and sometimes state, laws that are intended to protect patients.

This means situations exactly like that of Savita Halappanavar.

If it is determined that nothing can be done that would allow the woman to continue her pregnancy, the established standard of care for unstable patients who are miscarrying is an immediate surgical uterine evacuation.14 In the case of such a patient, immediate uterine evacuation reduces the patient’s risk of complications, including blood loss, hemorrhage, infection, and the loss of future fertility.15 A delay in treatment may subject a woman to unnecessary blood transfusions, risk of infection, hysterectomy or even death.16 Some Catholic hospitals, contrary to the opinion of leading Catholic ethicists and theologians,17 apply the Directives to prohibit doctors from providing any treatment to a woman having a miscarriage if there are still fetal heart tones, even when a doctor has determined that nothing can be done to save the pregnancy and the woman’s health is placed at risk by delaying immediate treatment. These hospitals will require that doctors withhold treatment until there are no fetal heart tones, or there are specific indications that a woman’s life is at risk, such as the onset of a serious infection.

Not Ireland. Not Poland. Not Nicaragua. The United States.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

There are demonstrations all over Ireland right now, to protest the horrible needless cruel death of Savita Halappanavar. Jen Keane (@zenbuffy) is there. People are estimating the one outside the Dail at 2 or 3 thousand, on only five hours notice.

A selection of tweets.

Ruairí McKenna‏@ruairimck

Just back from #actiononx protest at Dail. Hope politicians are listening. NEVER AGAIN #savita

TheJournal.ie‏@thejournal_ie

Organisers says over 2,000 people have attended a sit-down protest for #Savita outside Leinster House http://jrnl.to/SVUIQC

Ellen Newman‏@SmellenNewman

#Savita refused abortion due to doctor’s religious bias. The first thing we learn in med school: religion plays no part in medical decisions

Ciarán J. Martin‏@CiaranJMartin

2000-3000 believed to be gathered outside the Dáil now, hear the people speak #Savita

mark wright‏@markwrightuk88

RT @boucherhayes: 2000 – 3000 at #Savita protest now. All Kildare St traffic stopped.

Jen‏@JenClone

Pictures from the #Savita vigil in Ireland are making me cry actual tears. She had a heartbeat too.

Noel Dolan‏@cybernoelie

#Cork: Quite a large crowd has already gathered for #Savita outside the Opera House. http://twitpic.com/bd7vnl

SEO for SME‏@Malcolm_Oakley

Ireland and Poland both have total disregard for woman – http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/30/us-poland-abortion-court-idUSBRE89T1AC20121030 … #Abortion #Savita #Poland #Ireland

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

There’s a protest outside the Dail right now. You can follow it on Twitter via #Savita. Michael Nugent is there. He wrote a blistering post on the subject before departing.

…while Savita was dying, the Catholic church was running an immoral propaganda campaign to mislead Irish people into believing that pregnant women will always get the medical care they need in Irish hospitals.

And Irish politicians were yet again refusing to legislate for abortion to save the life of a pregnant woman. They have now repeatedly refused to do this for twenty years, since the Irish courts established this right in the X case.

We have such a law in the US, at least in the case of hospitals that get federal funds (which most do). On the other hand it’s not enforced. Catholic hospitals are allowed to let women die the way University Hospital Galway allowed Savita Halappanavar to die. Both countries are doing evil in this respect.

… just two years ago, the European Court of Human Rights ruled on complaints from three anonymous women (known as A, B and C) who had to travel from Ireland to England to have abortions, for various different reasons.

The European Court found that there is no automatic right to an abortion under the European Convention on Human Rights, and that two of the women did not have a right to an abortion, but that Ireland had violated the Convention with regard to the third woman.

The reason was that abortion is legal in Ireland when the life of a pregnant woman is at risk, and the Irish state had failed to provide an accessible and effective procedure by which a woman can have established whether she qualifies for a legal abortion.

Twenty years after the X case, and two years after the ABC case, pregnant women in Ireland are still caught in the grip of Catholic dogma and political cowardice.

The Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference has responded to the ABC ruling by launching a new campaign to stop the Irish Government from carrying out its duty to legislate. The campaign’s website is at http://chooselife2012.ie.

Outrageous lying name for the site – “choose life” indeed – they chose death for Savita Halappanavar.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Nice work, Ireland. The Bishop of Phoenix, Thomas Olmsted, must be feeling very proud of you this morning. In Ireland, hospitals damn well do what the church tells them to do, and let women die rather than terminating a miscarrying pregnancy.

Savita Halappanavar died of septicaemia at University Hospital Galway a couple of weeks ago, because she had a miscarriage and the hospital refused to abort the dying fetus.

Her husband, Praveen Halappanavar, an engineer at Boston Scientific in Galway, says she asked several times over a three-day period that the pregnancy be terminated. He says that, having been told she was miscarrying, and after one day in severe pain, Ms Halappanavar asked for a medical termination.

This was refused, he says, because the foetal heartbeat was still present and they were told, “this is a Catholic country”.

She spent a further 2½ days “in agony” until the foetal heartbeat stopped.

This was a hospital. Not a church. Not the pope’s living room. A hospital.

Mr Halappanavar said an internal examination was performed when she first presented.

“The doctor told us the cervix was fully dilated, amniotic fluid was leaking and unfortunately the baby wouldn’t survive.” The doctor, he says, said it should be over in a few hours. There followed three days, he says, of the foetal heartbeat being checked several times a day.

“Savita was really in agony. She was very upset, but she accepted she was losing the baby. When the consultant came on the ward rounds on Monday morning Savita asked if they could not save the baby could they induce to end the pregnancy. The consultant said, ‘As long as there is a foetal heartbeat we can’t do anything’.

“Again on Tuesday morning, the ward rounds and the same discussion. The consultant said it was the law, that this is a Catholic country. Savita [a Hindu] said: ‘I am neither Irish nor Catholic’ but they said there was nothing they could do.

“That evening she developed shakes and shivering and she was vomiting. She went to use the toilet and she collapsed. There were big alarms and a doctor took bloods and started her on antibiotics.

“The next morning I said she was so sick and asked again that they just end it, but they said they couldn’t.”

She was extremely ill, she was sick and in pain, they knew how to cure her, and they refused to do it. She asked them to and they refused. No, they said. We won’t. You just have to stay sick and get sicker. We refuse to treat you. This is a hospital, we are doctors, and we refuse to treat you.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

A new low. In Melbourne rabbis are threatening victims of child sex abuse in order to intimidate them out of reporting the abuse.

During a conversation with the victim the rabbi allegedly told him reporting the abuse now would do nothing but destroy the life of the alleged sexual perpetrator and his children.

“In cases like this, that are such a long time ago … the proper approach is to let him go,” he said.

Other shocking suggestions made by the rabbi included:

TELLING the victim he had invited the abuse because he wasn’t religious enough

SAYING children as young as five were abused because they were obsessed with sex, including with animals

ADMITTING he knew about allegations of abuse by the alleged perpetrator several years before the victim was allegedly abused.

Wow.

It is understood the alleged perpetrator continued to offend for several years before ultimately relocating overseas.

In defending his decision not to report the alleged assaults to authorities the rabbi said he believed the attacks were consensual.

“We are talking about very young boys and everyone is saying they agreed to this,” he said.

Godalmighty! Very young children and “they agreed” so…

Unbelievable.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)