Nearly the same story (with potentially more upsetting details) is here.
(Given Ireland's position on abortion, I am not sure it would have made a difference if she had been white. Am open to hearing different, although I may not be able to handle details until tomorrow because holy hell what was done to her is unspeakable enough.)
Race didn't come into it. In the Republic of Ireland, NOBODY gets an abortion, whatever their colour. It's particularly ironic that this particular woman was Hindu; her religion has no problems with abortion.
That was my impression, although I'm now curious about what exactly the Marie Stopes clinic does, then. Abortion in the first nine weeks is still abortion[1]; perhaps it's for people who have doctors that will argue that abortion is medically necessary to save their life.
(Apparently at least one legal expert is claiming it wouldhave been legal to offer her an abortion, too. So perhaps no-one believed it was necessary to save her life, or perhaps everyone making the decision was anti-abortion (in general or for her particularly), or perhaps they were frightened of the consequences if he took the option, or perhaps they were too fucking ignorant of the law[2]...)
People have it within themselves to be so reprehensible. --- [1] Unless there is some very particular legal definition in Ireland I am missing, but given the "conception is the beginning of one's Irish citizenship with full protection under the laws" thing I don't think there is. [2] It's, uhm, never pretty to find out how clueless your doctor is about laws relating to health incidents. I count myself lucky that for me that only came up when she was talking about something that was completely out of her purview and being handled by informed people anyway. (Specifically, what was going to happen about the cat that bit me.)
Marie Stopes is in Northern Ireland, i.e. part of the United kingdom, as opposed to the Republic of Ireland, where Galway is. It seems the restrictions against abortion are less stringent (RoI: only if it endangers the mother's life; NI: only if it endangers the mother's physical or mental health).
Considering I thought NI had the same law as Britain, and having taught about it, I have a large claim to ignorance too. As I see it, the 9 week limit is that of "medical abortion", by a chemical compound. After that, it's "mechanical" methods. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_the_United_Kingdom#Approved_methods
Considering the applicable law, I think that the clinic is being set up to start a court case and, eventually, make the legislation change.
That clinic is in Northern Ireland ; that's part of the UK, although it gets to make a lot of its own laws, which is why it's only just got its first abortion clinic. That won't do much to stop the flood of women going over to the mainland for abortions. I've since read that the Republic of Ireland does allow abortion to save the mother's life, but I'll take a wild guess that's only applied to ectopic pregnancies - when i was a teenager at catholic school I was taught that was the ONLY reason that the Church allowed that abortion was necessary. And of course, with ectopic pregnancy, the baby is literally no more than a bunch of cells and the mother most certainly will die without its swift removal. In this particular case, there was apparently some doubt about the gravity of the woman's health - very little to be sure, but some - so the doctors chose the safe way. Safe for them naturally - damm cowards.... And they'll probably get away with no punishment; the Irish government is anti-abortion pretty much to a man; it's yet to take any action of this 2010 ECH ruling (http://www.medic8.com/news/european-court-decides-irish-abortion-laws-violated-womans-rights-4178/), for example.
Not sure where race came into it, honestly. Though the amount of pro-lifers who are coming out and screaming, "Nobody said an abortion would save her life! Inducing early labour on a non-viable fetus is TOTALLY DIFFERENT! She died of septicemia and that could have happened no matter what and why are you pro-abortion lunatics disrespecting her by jumping on this?!" is SERIOUSLY depressing.
*ponders* And yet Ireland's supposed to be one of the safest places in the world to give birth. I am beginning to suspect that the stats may be influenced by either not counting miscarriages or stillbirths as "births" or by some people who have reason to believe it will be a difficult pregnancy moving the hell away as soon as they realize they're pregnant, at least for a few months, and giving birth elsewhere.
I think it's more... noxiously pro-gravidity? (A phrase I prefer since trans men can get pregnant as well as cis women, on top of everything else.) Someone who's pregnant is treated just fine as long as nothing they want has even the slightest potential to interfere with their new role as womb, which is now so much more important than "life" or "health" or "personhood".
I am having a sort of meandering and depressing "imagine the future" moment wherein it becomes possible to safely transfer gestating embryos to artificial wombs rather than forcing anyone to carry them to term--and in this future, a whole lot of the people screaming about how abortion was murder and should never happen are now screaming about how it's utterly wrong to expect any of their tax dollars to go towards supporting an innocent life and demanding all zygotes be stuffed back into someone who will then be forced to pay for medical expenses incurred up to and including giving birth.
Occasionally organizations step up and organize attempts to have the zygotes or fetuses adopted. There is much use of the projected appearance of the potential child, and many very tiny disclaimers on the computer-generated pictures which say warning: may not be as cute or as white as depicted, artist's representation only.
They don't let you keep it in a jar, sadly. And I've seen the term "forced birthers" to refer to people who are so pro-gravidity, but then that could get confusing with US "birthers"....
This blog post (http://www.ministryoftruth.me.uk/2012/11/15/is-irish-law-to-blame-for-the-death-of-savita/) explains the Irish law on abortion. The short version of the law: OK, have an abortion if you really must save your miserable life - but it will make you a baby-killing slut!
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(no subject)
Date: 2012-11-15 03:25 am (UTC)(Given Ireland's position on abortion, I am not sure it would have made a difference if she had been white. Am open to hearing different, although I may not be able to handle details until tomorrow because holy hell what was done to her is unspeakable enough.)
(no subject)
Date: 2012-11-15 01:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-11-15 05:48 pm (UTC)(Apparently at least one legal expert is claiming it would have been legal to offer her an abortion, too. So perhaps no-one believed it was necessary to save her life, or perhaps everyone making the decision was anti-abortion (in general or for her particularly), or perhaps they were frightened of the consequences if he took the option, or perhaps they were too fucking ignorant of the law[2]...)
I flashed back to this, very hard.
People have it within themselves to be so reprehensible.
---
[1] Unless there is some very particular legal definition in Ireland I am missing, but given the "conception is the beginning of one's Irish citizenship with full protection under the laws" thing I don't think there is.
[2] It's, uhm, never pretty to find out how clueless your doctor is about laws relating to health incidents. I count myself lucky that for me that only came up when she was talking about something that was completely out of her purview and being handled by informed people anyway. (Specifically, what was going to happen about the cat that bit me.)
(no subject)
Date: 2012-11-15 07:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-11-15 09:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-11-15 10:14 pm (UTC)Considering the applicable law, I think that the clinic is being set up to start a court case and, eventually, make the legislation change.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-11-15 08:18 pm (UTC)I've since read that the Republic of Ireland does allow abortion to save the mother's life, but I'll take a wild guess that's only applied to ectopic pregnancies - when i was a teenager at catholic school I was taught that was the ONLY reason that the Church allowed that abortion was necessary. And of course, with ectopic pregnancy, the baby is literally no more than a bunch of cells and the mother most certainly will die without its swift removal.
In this particular case, there was apparently some doubt about the gravity of the woman's health - very little to be sure, but some - so the doctors chose the safe way. Safe for them naturally - damm cowards.... And they'll probably get away with no punishment; the Irish government is anti-abortion pretty much to a man; it's yet to take any action of this 2010 ECH ruling (http://www.medic8.com/news/european-court-decides-irish-abortion-laws-violated-womans-rights-4178/), for example.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-11-15 09:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-11-15 03:36 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-11-15 04:29 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-11-15 01:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-11-15 05:24 pm (UTC)I think it's more... noxiously pro-gravidity? (A phrase I prefer since trans men can get pregnant as well as cis women, on top of everything else.) Someone who's pregnant is treated just fine as long as nothing they want has even the slightest potential to interfere with their new role as womb, which is now so much more important than "life" or "health" or "personhood".
(no subject)
Date: 2012-11-15 08:27 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-11-15 09:15 pm (UTC)Occasionally organizations step up and organize attempts to have the zygotes or fetuses adopted. There is much use of the projected appearance of the potential child, and many very tiny disclaimers on the computer-generated pictures which say warning: may not be as cute or as white as depicted, artist's representation only.
I'm having an AnnoyedAtTheWorld day.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-11-16 01:29 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-11-15 04:32 pm (UTC)And then 10 minutes later I read that Ohio has reinstated its push for a no exception abortion ban and was even more horrified.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-11-15 08:24 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-11-16 11:30 am (UTC)