Savita’s death reports one-sided: Catholic forum

The Catholic Christian Secular Forum (CSF) has claimed that the case of Savita Halappanavar, who was reportedly denied an abortion, resulting in her death was being wrongly portrayed, giving it religious and even racist connotations without the Catholic viewpoint being equally emphasised.

In a statement issued by the CSF, Joseph Dias, its general secretary, said the right wing BJP, ministry of external affairs, communist Brinda Karat and others jumped to conclusions, taking potshots at the universal Catholic Church and Ireland’s Abortion laws based on feedback received from Savita’s family. “Two investigations are on and its results should be awaited. It is yet to be conclusively established that the cause of death was denial of abortion,” Dias said.

He maintained that relatives blaming doctors for the death of a loved one was often seen. “But to say her death was because the child was not aborted is something only qualified medical professionals may conclude. The Irish Supreme Court has ruled in favour of abortion, if there was reasonable risk to the mother, including her threat to suicide,” he said, emphasising that Savita died three days after a miscarriage.

“It is not that doctors sat there doing nothing. Complications do arise and one cannot blame the doctors for every miscarriage or death, as is natural,” he said.

He also said that asking doctors to abort a pregnancy would be asking them to go against the law of the land. “The issue of Ireland’s abortion law has come up in many referendums over the last 30 years, under different powers-that-be and the citizens of that country have repeatedly rejected abortion. Unless the law is amended suitably, it stands and asking the doctors to kill the child is asking them to commit a cognisable offense and violate the law,” he said.

Moreover, Ireland is a country recognised by the WHO as one of the safest for its mothers. In its recent report of the global maternal death rates, it found that only three out of every one lakh women died in childbirth in Ireland. Compare this with an average of 14 in Europe and North America, 190 in Asia and 590 in Africa. “Ireland is one of the safest nation in the world to be pregnant, which speaks commendably for its mother’s healthcare system,” he said.

He added that millions of nationalities working or residing abroad follow the law of the land. “Many Indians are in the gulf or Islamic states, where they dutifully follow laws and there seems to be little outcry for their basic human or religious rights, if violated. Can we expect foreigners in India to disobey Indian law!” he asked, citing the Italian Marines’ case.
He also said that the Galway Hospital was not a ‘Catholic’ Hospital as claimed by reports but is managed, along with several other hospitals in the region, by a management team put in place by the government’s health services executive.

The Church’s stand on abortion only reflected its view of the sanctity of life in all forms, he said, emphasising that the track record for abortion was there to prove the lack of respect for life in a number of countries, including Europe and India.

He advocated the need for a change to the Indian Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act (MTPA) saying that the culture of death by choice tends to become all pervasive in the light of the fact that in India a minimum of 1.1 crore babies are ‘murdered’, many of which are cases of female infanticide.

“In the five years preceding 2012, it is estimated that around 25 lakh legal abortions took place. This should be seen in the light of the fact that in 1972, when the MTPA took its present form, there were only 25,000 cases reported.”