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 21st 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 the thing that really troubles me. It was obvious that the fetus was going to die. But the doctors would not give Savita the treatment she needed until they could pronounce the fetus officially dead. But the Catholics and other forced-birthers still insist they’re pro-life.
People keep saying that religion had absolutely *no* influence on this, like at all
Don’t let them get away with that. If someone claims to be pro-life, correct them and say the correct term is anti-abortion. Point out that starting off with them making a dishonest claim about their position does not bode well for their continued honesty.
Indeed, the fetus was going to die anyway which is what makes this story especially infuriating and horrifying. They let a young woman die not to save a fetus, but to delay the death of a fetus by a few days.
Presumably because they believed that one cannot deliberately end the life of a fetus, one has to ‘let god’ end it. And god chose to end the fetus’s life only when it had become impossible to save Savita. What a fabulous god that is, eh?