Parents of woman who died when Irish doctors refused to perform abortion meet with Indian government to demand justice

• Savita Halappanavar, 31, was found to be miscarrying when she was admitted to Galway University Hospital
• The dentist, who was 17 weeks pregnant, was denied a medical termination, and died from septicaemia on October 28
• Indian officials have promised parents Anadappa and Akka Mahadevi Yalgi all possible help
• Pro-choice campaigners plan mass rallies in Ireland calling for abortion to be legalised
  

By Rebecca Seales

Published: 14:53 EDT, 16 November 2012 | Updated: 16:49 EDT, 17 November 2012

The parents of an Indian woman who died of blood poisoning after Irish doctors refused her an abortion have met officials to demand justice for their daughter.

Savita Halappanavar, 31, was 17 weeks pregnant when she began miscarrying, and died of septicaemia a week later.

Her husband Praveen Halappanavar, 34, has told how he begged doctors at Galway University Hospital to terminate the pregnancy, but they refused to do so because she was ‘in a Catholic country’ and the foetus’s heartbeat was still present.

The tragedy has provoked soul searching in the Republic of Ireland, where abortion is illegal, as well as considerable anger in some quarters.

Campaigners are demanding a change in the law to allow abortion in the case where the mother’s life is in danger.

Savita’s parents Anadappa Yalgi, 62, and his wife Akka Mahadevi Yalgi, 54, met with municipal government officials late on Friday afternoon at the family home in Belgaum, South West India.

The grieving couple asked Belgaum’s Deputy Commissioner, Anbu Kumar, to help ensure every possible assistance from the Indian government.

Mr Kumar said of the encounter: ‘I visited the house and offered our government’s help where possible.’

A photo of Savita now hangs in the family home covered in a garland, as is traditional in India’s Hindu community after the death of a loved one.

Echoing comments made by her parents, India’s ambassador to Ireland said today that Mrs Halappanavar might still be alive today if she had been treated in India.

Debashish Chakravarti told RTÉ radio that he hoped the Irish government would take steps to ensure the circumstances which led to her death never arose again. 

Abortion is not illegal in India when the mother’s life is at risk, the ambassador noted.

Meanwhile Ireland’s ambassador to India, Feilim McLaughlin, was officially summoned by the Delhi government on Friday to discuss an inquiry into Mrs Halappanavar’s death.

Madhusudan Ganapathi, secretary (west) in the external affairs ministry, told the Irish envoy he hoped the inquiry into the tragedy would be independent.

He also conveyed the sadness felt by people in India as ‘a young life had come to an untimely end’.

India’s External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said of the tragedy: “Saving the life of the mother is of prime importance, if you can’t save the life of the child.”

Mr Halappanavar, Savita’s husband, has described how he held her hand as she died.

Reliving her final moments, he said: ‘In the night, at around one o’clock, the nurse came running, as I was standing outside ICU.

‘She just told me to be brave, and she took me near Savita, and she said: “Will you be OK to be there, living her last minutes?

‘I said: “Yes, I want to”. I was holding her hand, they were trying to pump her heart, there was a big team around. The doctor just told me they lost her.’

Mr Halappanavar, who works as an engineer at Boston Scientific in Galway, came to Ireland from India with his wife four years ago to start a new life together. She had a job in Westport, Co Mayo and the pair lived in Galway city.

Happy couple: Savita and her husband Praveen dancing at 2010 Diwali festival in Galway, video from YouTube

They were so excited about the expected birth of their first child, which was due on March 20, that they had an early baby shower in recent weeks when Mrs Halappanavar’s parents were visiting.

Pro-choice activists in Ireland have turned to social media networks to organise a mass protest against the country’s abortion laws on Saturday.

A rally in central Dublin is expected to attract several thousand demonstrators, and follows similar rallies on Thursday night in Belfast and on Friday in Derry.

A woman from Kentucky who was told to carry a fetus ‘with no brain’ for 18 weeks has slammed the state’s male-dominated legislature as being out of touch.

The fetus was diagnosed with anencephaly, a condition where the brain and parts of the skull do not form properly – and it cause death at birth or the first few days of life.

Heather Maberry, 32, said that lawmakers behind its abortion ban — one of the most restrictive in the country — simply ‘do not know how it feels’ to hear the worst news an expectant mother could face.

‘They are never going to have to carry a child. They are never going to have to be in that position,’ she said. ‘They are never gonna be the one that was carrying that baby and had to go through hell.’

Ms Maberry — who used to be anti-abortion — was forced to travel 300 miles out of state to Chicago for $7,000 after being told her baby, who she named Willow, was non-viable and didn’t have a brain.

Ms Maberry explained to ABC News that before the experience, she did not believe in abortion for herself but was not against others having terminations.

She told a local publication: ‘They [the legislators] do not know how it feels to carry a child, to have someone tell you the most devastating news of your life, and then say I can’t even hold her.

‘They have stolen that from me.’

Kentucky was the first state to make abortion virtually impossible in April last year and force all clinics to close.

The state legislature — where 107 out of 138 members are men — enacted a law banning all terminations after 15 weeks but also put onerous requirements on clinics — such as issuing birth-death certificates — that forced their closure.

There is a loophole allowing abortions in cases when there is no fetal heartbeat after six weeks, but doctors said this would not help Ms Maberry because her nonviable baby still had a heartbeat. Nearly half of US states have enacted limits on abortion since Roe v. Wade was overturned in June last year. 

In Ms Maberry’s case, she had been excited to try for another child with her husband Nick after tying the knot last year.

She first fell pregnant in October 2022, but suffered a miscarriage before finding out she was pregnant again just two days before Christmas.

‘We were super excited,’ she said, ‘but we were also very nervous because we had just lost a baby. So, we just kept trying to take care of me the best we could’.

The pregnancy was complicated, with Ms Maberry developing hyperemesis gravidarum — a severe type of nausea and vomiting — in the early stages.

She was put on medications to help ease this and they then found out she was pregnant with her fourth girl, who they named Willow.

It was shortly afterward, however, that doctors diagnosed her daughter with anencephaly, a serious condition where major sections of the brain and skull have not developed.

It is caused by the neural tube — the pre-cursor to the brain and spinal cord — failing to close properly around 23 to 26 days after conception. Estimates suggest that about one in 4,600 babies in the United States have the condition.

Dr Sadia Haider, an obstetrician at Rush University Medical Center, said: ‘In this scenario, it’s irrelevant whether there’s a heartbeat or not.

‘Anencephaly basically means there’s no brain, essentially like no neurologic development, which is essential for survival.’

She said the fetus would die during birth or shortly after childbirth.

When she was told the devastating news, Ms Maberry said it felt like she was living the ‘worst nightmare a mother could imagine’.

After a discussion with her husband, she said she only wanted to get the chance to kiss her daughter on the forehead and bury her quietly.

But because of Kentucky’s laws, doctors said she would have to carry the fetus to full term unless she headed out of state for an abortion.

‘The only option I had here was to continue carrying her with the same outcome for another, you know, 17 or 18 weeks,’ she said.

‘I said: ‘I physically can’t and mentally can’t continue carrying her knowing that she’s never gonna breathe, we’re never going to have a life with her’.

‘So, we came to the decision that we were going to try to get an abortion.’

She was linked up to the National Abortion Hotline, which referred her to a clinic in Chicago for the procedure. 

She was quoted $3,300 for the termination, but she would also need to cover the cost of flights for herself and her husband, food, and accommodation. 

This was when the hotline stepped in to help offset the expenses, which Ms Maberry said could easily have topped $7,000 without them.

Describing her position on abortion now, she said: ‘There’s so much involved in choosing to continue with the pregnancy, choosing to go through the delivery as far as like physically, emotionally and otherwise.

‘Allowing patients to have a choice in how long they have to continue this for — given the negative outcome that they’re gonna face — is really important.’

Fresh from baiting Governor Ron DeSantis with political adverts in Florida, now California‘s Democratic leader Gavin Newsom is running full-page newspaper ads in Texas on abortion and guns.

The cheeky campaign will fuel speculation that Newsom is laying down his 2024 credentials as a presidential candidate who is prepared to take the fight to Republican culture warriors.

And in an interview to coincide with the launch he criticized other members of his party for playing softball with opponents. 

The new slate of ads will run will run in the Austin American-Statesman, Houston Chronicle and El Paso Times.

They target Governor Greg Abbott, who recently said abortion was costing the lives of children in Texas. 

It changes his line to say instead that gun violence is responsible for killing children in California.

‘If Texas can ban abortion and endanger lives, California can ban deadly weapons of war and save lives. If Governor Abbott truly wants to protect the right to life, we urge him to follow California’s lead,’ the ad reads. 

It comes after Newsom sparked 2024 speculation with a $105,000 ad buy on Fox News hitting DeSantis, before last week criticizing Democratic timidity in Washington last week.

He told NBC News that Democrats had to get tougher in the wake of the Supreme Court decision overturning nationwide abortion rights.

‘I think Democrats have been playing a little soft,’ he said.

Taking the moral high ground could only take the party so far, he added. 

‘It’s absolutely true that I’d much rather follow, “When they go low, we go high,” he said, in reference to the philosophy of former first lady Michelle Obama.

‘But I also think we’d be completely missing the moment we’re living in. The door’s open.

‘It’s now fair play. The Supreme Court left the door open.’

To that end, Newsom is due on Friday to sign into law a gun control law that is modeled on the Texas abortion law by allowing citizens to sue anyone who makes or sells banned weapons.

His Florida ad already had Newsom sounding like a national player.

‘I urge all of you living in Florida to join the fight – or join us in California, where we still believe in freedom,’ he said in the July 4th ad, which has the feel of a political campaign spot.

The following week he was in the nation’s capital to meet with First Lady Jill Biden at the White House. 

He said the two spoke ‘all things education’ including ‘what’s going on in many of those red states.’ 

He also collected an award from the Education Commission of the States.

The award comes ‘in recognition of its coordinated approach to educating all students from preschool to postsecondary, with explicit attention toward whole-child supports and services, as well as its historic financial investments to ensure educational equity,’ according to the group. 

The state is on the way to achieving universal pre-K by 2025. 

Newsom, 54, used the platform to blast GOP attacks on Critical Race Theory, at a time when some Demcrats are calling on Biden to more forcefully confront his critics.

‘What’s happening now–banning books? Suppressing speech? The other-ing of our students, teachers, parents? It’s alarming,’ he said.

He also said President Biden should run for reelection. 

It comes on a trip where he planned to meet administration officials – with plans to meet with Vice President Kamala Harris in DC on Friday.

The trip came while President Biden was out of the country on a trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia and a day after Biden tore into a reporter who brought up a New York Times / Sienna College poll that showed two-thirds of Democrats want someone else as the party nominee.

‘You guys are all the same’ he said, telling his questioner to ‘read the polls, read the polls. They want me to run.’

He cited a different poll question showing 92 per cent of Democrats would vote for him. The poll also showed him narrowly beating former President Donald Trump. 

‘Read the polls. Read the polls, Jack. You guys are all the same,’ said Biden. 

 ‘A majority of Democrats say the don’t want you to run in 2024,’ the reporter countered. Biden shot back:  ’92 percent said I did, they’d vote for me.’

In his Independence Day ad, Newsom went straight at DeSantis and national party leaders.

Republican leaders are ‘making it harder to vote, restricting speech in classrooms, even criminalizing women and doctors,’ he said in he ad.

Nikki Haley used her personal struggle with fertility to emphasize her pro-life stance as she tackled the abortion issue in a major policy speech on Tuesday where she called on Republicans to face ‘reality’ when it comes to the controversial issue.

Her remarks were designed to appeal to moderate voters as many in the Republican Party have expressed concern that some abortion laws being passed – like the ban on abortions after 12 weeks that Ron DeSantis signed in Florida – are too restrictive and will turn off the swing voters who will decide the next election.

As the issue divides the Republican Party, Haley called for consensus and a ‘constructive conversation’ on the matter.

Haley, speaking at the headquarters of the influential pro-life group Susan B. Anthony, described herself as ‘pro life.’ 

‘I am unapologetic, or unhesitating about it,’ the Republican presidential candidate said. ‘I want to save as many lives and help as many moms as possible.’

Haley, the only declared female Republican presidential candidate, said her party has ‘to face this reality. The pro-life laws that have passed in strongly Republican states will not be approved at the federal level. That’s just a fact.’

Florida is one of about a dozen states with the most restrictive abortion laws in the country. Lawsuits are ongoing throughout the country after a wave of bans was passed after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. 

A recent CBS News poll showed that 58% of Americans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases and that includes 62% of independent voters and 29% of Republicans. 

Haley called for a ‘constructive conversation about where we go from here in our divided country.’

‘This shouldn’t be about one movement winning, and another one losing,’ she said. ‘This shouldn’t be about picking sides, scoring points, or stoking outrage. It’s about saving babies and supporting moms.’

But she didn’t say at what point in a pregnancy she supports an abortion taking place and she has thus far avoid attaching herself to any specific proposal.

In February, she told NBC’s Today Show: ‘We need consensus on this because I want to save as many babies as possible and I want to support as many moms as possible. Is that consensus 15 weeks? Is it ten weeks? Is it six weeks? I don’t know what that is, but we need to figure this out for the good of these babies and for the good of the moms.’ 

She didn’t offer any stronger details on Tuesday. But, in her remarks, she made the issue personal, describing how her husband Michael was adopted and she was grateful his parents chose life.

‘Every day is a blessing because someone gave him life,’ she said. ‘Every day is a blessing because a family loved and raised him under difficult conditions.’

She also described how the couple struggled with fertility issues before having son Nalin and daughter Rena.

‘Michael and I struggled to have children of our own. I had many challenges as a teenager, and in my college years. I went through numerous surgeries. When Michael and I were married, I couldn’t wait to be a mom. But what happened so easily for many of my friends, was not my family. We went through countless sessions of fertility treatments,’ she said.

‘Every day I wake up and see or speak to my two children. I feel blessed. The greatest job I’ve ever had, is being there mom,’ she said.

In her remarks, Haley outlined areas she believes Americans can find consensus: making adoptions easier, not punishing a woman for having an abortion, not forcing medical personnel to go against their personal beliefs to provide abortion, make contraception more available, and ban late-term abortions.

In her call for a calm conversation, she blasted President Joe Biden for stirring the pot on the issue.

She said he promotes division instead of trying to bring people together.

‘That’s not leadership. It’s the it’s more partisanship of the worst kind of pro life political leaders and candidates must not put up with being demonized. We should call out the extremism on the left,’ she said.

Democrats see abortion as a winning issue for their party. In the 2022 midterm election, the abortion issue rallied voters and kept Democrats in control of the Senate. In the House, Republicans won a small, five-seat majority. 

Haley, in her remarks, was careful to stay away from controversy. She focused on a middle path, offering compassion and understanding to both sides of the issue.

‘Most people have a story that has brought them to their views about abortion. It could be your personal experience. It could be a trauma that a family member or friend endured. It could be a moral conviction. It could be our concerns about our daughters and their future,’ she said. 

And she then shared her story.

Haley also criticized those who push for specific positions on abortion. 

‘How many weeks are you for? How many exceptions are you for and the list goes on. But these questions missed the point if the goal is about saving as many lives as possible. You don’t save any lives,’ she said.

She concluded by calling on Americans to come together.

‘Let us treat it as the important and deeply personal issue that it is. Let’s discuss it in a way that allows Americans to show love for one another not judgment or contempt. And let’s find a consensus that allows us to save as many babies as we can, while supporting women in difficult situations.’