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This woman died because of the abortion ban. Americans fear they might be next.

After the historic Supreme Court decided to overturn Roe v. WadeSome doctors are highlighting the 2012 death of a pregnant woman in Ireland and warning that the same could happen on a large scale in the United States.

Dr Savita Halappanavar, a 31-year-old dentist of Indian descent, died in 2012 in Galway, on the west coast of Ireland, after she was denied an abortion by doctors, who invoked the strict laws of country, although there is no chance for her child. exist, according to Ireland’s official report in case.

Her death shook the foundations of the traditionally conservative and predominantly Roman Catholic country, and catalyzed its pro-abortion movement. In a year 2018 referendum, the Irish people got a two-thirds majority vote to legalize the procedure.

According to Dr. Sabaratnam Arulkumaran, an expert in 2013, who wrote the article that reported the incident.

“That’s why Biden said the issue should be between patients and doctors, rather than with the law,” he told NBC News by phone, referring to President Joe Biden. speech react to Roe and Wade reversal on June 24.

In Halappanavar’s case, doctors refused to terminate the abortion because the fetus had a heartbeat, and anyone who performed the termination of pregnancy could theoretically be prosecuted at a later date.

“Because the fetal heartbeat was always present, the obstetrician did not perform the termination. If someone decided that she did it illegally, she would have to go to jail,” he said. , referring to the doctor participating in Halappanavar.

Arulkumaran, professor emeritus of obstetrics and gynecology at St. George’s, London, added that mothers’ lives are at stake in the United States.

“I think the maternal mortality rate will go up,” he said. “I think the people that will be affected are people from lower socioeconomic groups, teenagers, people who don’t have enough grounds to go for termination.”

Back pain first brought Halappanavar to Galway University Hospital on October 21, 2012. She was sent home but just hours later she returned after “felt something was about to fall” and said she had “pushed one foot back.” A midwife confirmed no fetal organs could be seen, according to the official report. Later that day, she described the pain as “unbearable”. according to the official report.

She was hospitalized, and on October 23, a doctor told her that a miscarriage was “inevitable” due to the rupture of the membranes that protect the fetus in the womb, despite the fact that her baby was the size of a baby. normal and having a heartbeat. . The medical team decided to “monitor the fetal heart in case of possible rapid delivery after the fetal heart stops beating”. official report In the case of Halappanavar, a quick delivery could mean a medically induced miscarriage.

On October 23, Halappanavar and her husband, Praveen, asked about medically inducing a miscarriage rather than delaying the inevitable, a doctor told them: “According to Irish law, if there is no proof of the risk to the mother’s life, our hands were tied for as long as a fetal heartbeat[beat]”, the official report said.

The report adds that once their waters break, pregnant women are at a very high risk of infection, which in some cases can be fatal.

On October 28 at 1:09 a.m., infected and in septic shock, Halappanavar was presumed dead.

“It’s a life-threatening condition but they take a stance of doing nothing because of the legal framework,” Arulkumaran said in the interview.

Praveen Halappanavar, who did not respond to a request for comment, told The Guardian in 2013 that the investigation into his wife’s death “vindicated” his version of events. He told the inquest that a doctor told him an abortion was not possible because “this is a Catholic country.

After the report was released, Galway University Hospital apologized to Halappanavar’s family in a statement saying it was “clear” that “there were flaws in the standards of care provided.”

“We can reassure all concerned that we have made changes to avoid a repeat of such an event,” it added.

Threatening a mother’s life

While some US states have issued “activate the law“prohibits abortion – some make exceptions such as in cases of rape or incest, and all currently allow abortion if the mother’s life is in serious danger – many Questions from experts how easy would it be to get an exception. In addition, asking doctors to explain complicated laws during a medical emergency can lead to dangerous decisions, they said.

Irish law in 2012 allowed abortion to prevent “potentially great risk or threat to the life of the mother.” But the Halappanavar report says a doctor has decided when an abortion is “allowable under Irish law” has yet to be reached.

Jen Gunter, a California-based OB-GYN physician and author of “The Vaginal Bible,” says this is not a theoretical scenario in the US.

“I have personally been in a situation where, due to state law, abortion is illegal at our medical center and we have a patient who needs one,” she said in an interview and declined to share any more details of the incident beyond the fact that it was in Kansas, where abortion is legal up to 22 weeks with some restrictions.

She added: “It wasn’t a pregnancy complication, her organs were already weakened by the burden of pregnancy due to her underlying condition.

Lawyers at the Kansas medical center told Gunter she could not have an abortion unless the woman was in “imminent danger”.

“I said, ‘What does that mean?’ And their interpretation was that she was going to die in the next three minutes,” she said. Gunter said hospital lawyers set up a call with the state politician involved in the law, who told her, “Do what you think is best, doctor.”

“So I thought, ‘So why do we have this law?'” she said.

Ectopic pregnancy – in which a fertilized egg implants and grows outside the uterus, usually in the fallopian tubes and can be life-threatening for the mother – can cause additional confusion and delay cannot be resolved in the treatment under the new law.

See more from NBC News: More confusion about state abortion laws spreads after the reversal of Roe v. Wade

Gunter is unwavering in his prediction of what stricter abortion laws mean in the US

She says women can die despite better antibiotics to treat septic abortions.

“Halappanavar? That’s never going to change things in the United States when that happens here, and it will.”

Lawmaker Ivana Bacik, leader of the Irish Labor Party and longtime abortion rights advocate, led a protest against the Supreme Court decision outside the US Embassy in Dublin on Monday. for solidarity for American women and girls.”

“Our experience here is that the prohibition and criminalization of abortion puts women’s lives in jeopardy. Obviously that’s the horrible reality today for American women,” she said.

“If you give up the right to abortion for women and girls, you will put your life at risk. The reality is that during pregnancy there will be life-threatening conditions that threaten life and health.”

Bacik said Halappanavar’s story was instrumental in driving public opinion towards a “yes” vote in 2018. As was the case with one brain dead woman in Ireland, where the life support machine was turned off just over three weeks after she was declared clinically dead in 2014 following a lengthy legal battle because she was 18 weeks pregnant.

When submitted to the Irish government, which is currently reviewing the abortion law, a group of 20 health and women’s rights charities Authorized poll in March showed that 67% of people across the island supported free access to abortion – mirroring support for a “yes” vote in 2018.

However, opponents of abortion rights in Ireland continue to fight. On Saturday, a Right to Life rally will take place in Dublin, where organizers are calling on sympathizers to “be a voice for the 6,500 babies killed by abortion each year.”

Carol Nolan, an independent lawmaker representing the Laois-Offaly constituency in the Midlands of Ireland, opposed the change to the law in 2018 and argued that Halappanavar’s death had been flagged by women’s rights campaigners. female “intentionally and repeatedly” misrepresents.

“The major contributing factors to Savita’s death back then were medical negligence and poor management leading to sepsis in the mother,” she said by email, adding that she believes the pre-2018 law – so-called 8th Amendment – is not a barrier to Halappanavar receiving adequate and effective care.

“After removing the constitutional amendment, we have seen an explosion in the number of abortions and the relentless application of political and non-governmental pressure to expand further,” Nolan said. the parameters of the law after 2018.

See more from NBC: The reversal of Roe v. How Wade affects access to medical abortion

There were 32 abortions in Ireland in 2018 and more than 6,000 in the next two years, according to the latest figures from the country’s government.

“This was completely predictable,” added Nolan. “However, it is only intended to demonstrate my own view that the Eighth Amendment acts as a signal of proportionality and reasonable law based on an authentic vision of human rights.”

The sometimes deadly intersection of law and medicine in the debate also preoccupies abortion rights advocates.

Bacik, the Dublin legislator, cited the case of Andrea Prudentean American woman was refused abortion after heavy bleeding in Malta on June 12. She was transferred to Spain, where she treated and the fetus was removed.

Many cases of women dying after being denied an abortion have been emerged from PolandThere is an almost complete ban on abortion. Last year, a 30-year-old woman known only as Izabela, who was 22 weeks pregnant, died of septic shock, her family said. Scans showed the fetus had many problems, but doctors refused to terminate it when there was a fetal heart, Reuters reported.

After the fetus dies, doctors can then legally operate. But Izabela’s heart stopped on the way to the operating room for a cesarean section.

Next mass protests in PolandFlags were raised bearing the slogan: “Her heart beats too.

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