Overly-strict Irish abortion laws are forcing women to carry dead fetuses for weeks

BY: JESSICA BEUKER

In July of 2013 controversy spread through Ireland after a law was passed allowing women to obtain abortions where their life was at risk. The law was passed after the death of Savita Halappanavar, who was refused an abortion while miscarrying in October 2012. If and only if, a woman’s life is thought to be in danger, then a doctor can make the decision to carry out an abortion. However under every other circumstance the practice is still illegal. Currently, human rights groups, including Amnesty International, are bringing forth the issue again – as a new report argues the law treats women like criminals and violates their rights.

Strict abortion laws are damaging in a number of ways. According to a report by Amnesty International, Ireland’s abortion law is one of the most restrictive in the world. Women and girls cannot legally have an abortion unless their life is at risk, and even then, access is difficult and the cases are not all the same. Savita Halappanavar, for example was denied an abortion after she was told that she was not at risk, but yet died a week after her miscarriage due to septicemia – a severe, life-threatening blood infection. In order for it to be deemed substantial risk in a case of suicide, a woman has to be assessed first by at least three specialists including a gynecologist and two psychiatrists. In many cases it is difficult to predict whether or not complications will arise. Therefore, obtaining access to an abortion – even when there is a risk of death – is not always clear-cut.

Savita Halappanavar’s vigil.

A woman holds a poster during the vigil in Dublin in memory of Savita Halappanavar.

According to Amnesty’s report, each day between 10 and 12 women travel to England to obtain an abortion. The reasons for terminating their pregnancies vary, and women in Ireland are not allowed to obtain an abortion under the circumstances of rape, incest, or severe or fatal fetal impairment. Because of this some women have been forced to carry a dead or unviable fetus for weeks. While that may not fall under “real and substantial” risk to life, the damaging emotional and psychological effects would be heavy and last forever.

The report by Amnesty states:

“the long history of the criminalization of abortion in Ireland is part of a broader social and political environment in which women and girls have been subject to strict, punitive social controls around their sexuality, in law, policy and practice. This history of institutionalized violence has produced a strong sense of stigma surrounding abortion in Ireland.”

This stigma is not going away anytime soon – according to The Journal, health minister Leo Varadkar believes that the act is working and sees no reason to change it. Earlier this month, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights criticized the abortion laws and recommended that a referendum should be held on the 8^th Amendment – which was originally introduced to prevent abortion from being legalized in the future. Varadkar stated that no other referendums on the issue of abortion would take place during this government.

Despite this, human rights groups will not stop fighting. “Women and girls who need abortions are treated like criminals, stigmatized and forced to travel abroad, taking a serious toll on their mental and physical health,” says Amnesty International’s secretary-general Salil Shetty. “The Irish state can no longer ignore this reality and the appalling impact it is having on thousands of people every year.”

Pro-choice activists at Connolly Station in Dublin

Image: Brian Lawless

Savita Halappanavar’s case is not rare – in fact it is a common example of what women in Ireland face everyday. It doesn’t matter whether you are personally pro-life or pro-choice, women should be given the freedom to do what they please with their own bodies. Not only that, but they should not feel like criminals for what they want to do with their bodies, especially when they feel at-risk or in pain. “For a doctor to say ‘you are not dying enough yet,’” says chief executive of Dublin Well Woman, Alison Begas, who explained that Savita Halappanavar was not dying enough, until they couldn’t pull her back because the infection had ravaged her body, “it is barbaric.”

Restrictive abortion laws, including those that exist in Ireland, violate women’s and girls’ rights to life, health, privacy, non-discrimination and freedom from torture and other ill-treatment. The withholding and denial of abortion- related information to women, as Ireland’s Regulation of Information Act requires, also violates fundamental human rights, including the rights to information and freedom of expression. While it is always controversial when two competing rights come head to head, the strict laws create a negative impact and stifling effect not only on women who seek to obtain an abortion, but on all women.