After the historic of the Supreme Court Decision to overturn the Roe v. Wade caseSome doctors have emphasized the death of pregnant women in Ireland in 2012 and warned that the same could happen on a large scale in the United States.
Dr. Sabitahara Panabar, a 31-year-old Indian-born dentist, was denied an abortion in Galway on the west coast of Ireland by a doctor who quoted strict national legislation, despite the possibility of a baby. , Died in 2012.According to the survival of Ireland Official report In the case.
Her death shook the foundations of a traditionally conservative and predominantly Roman Catholic country and catalyzed the right movement in favor of abortion. In 2018 Referendum, Irish people voted by a two-thirds majority to legalize the procedure.
According to expert Dr. Sabaratonam Arlekumaran, who wrote officials in 2013, the avoidable death of Harapanabar, who was 17 weeks pregnant, is best done by doctors, not politicians, police or judges, in similar cases. Report an incident that proved to be helpful in determining a course of action.
“That’s why Biden said the problem should be between the patient and the doctor, not the law,” he told NBC News on the phone, President Joe Biden’s. speech React to Roe v. Wade Incident June 24th.
In the case of Harapanavar, doctors objected to the abortion because the fetus has a heart rate and, in theory, the person who had the abortion could be prosecuted at a later date.
“The obstetrician didn’t end because the fetal heart rate was always present. If someone decided she did it illegally, she went to jail,” he said. Said referring to the doctor who attends.
Arlekumaran, an emeritus professor of obstetrics and gynecology at St. George’s University in London, added that the lives of mothers are at stake in the United States.
“I think the maternal mortality rate will go up,” he said. “I think it will affect people in low socio-economic groups, adolescents, and people without facilities for retirement.”
Back pain first sent Harapanabar to Galway University Hospital on October 21, 2012. She was sent to her house, but after she “she felt something had fallen”, she said “pushed her legs back” and she came back a few hours later. I did. According to her official report, her midwife confirmed that no part of her fetus was seen. Later that day, she described her pain as “unbearable.” According to the official report.
She was hospitalized, and on October 23, doctors said miscarriage was “unavoidable” because the membrane that protects the fetus in the womb ruptured, even though the baby was recording heartbeats at normal size. I did. .. The medical team has decided to “monitor the fetal heart in case it may be possible to accelerate delivery after the fetal heart has stopped.” Official report In the case of Harapanavar, accelerated delivery is likely to mean a medically-induced miscarriage.
On October 23, when Harapanavar and her husband, Prabean, asked about medically inducing miscarriage rather than delaying the inevitable, doctors told them:As long as the fetal heart is there, the hands are tied[beat]”The official report said.
The report added that if the water breaks, pregnant women are at very high risk of infection and can be fatal in some cases.
At 1:09 am on October 28, Harapanavar, who suffered from an infectious disease and suffered from septic shock, was declared dead.
“It was a life-threatening situation, but they took the view that they would do nothing because of the legal framework,” Arlekumaran said in an interview.
Praveen Halappanavar, who did not respond to requests for comment, told the Guardian. In 2013 The investigation into the death of his wife “proved” what happened in his version. “The doctor told him that abortion couldn’t be done because it’s a Catholic country,” he told the cause of death hearing.
After the report was published, Galway University Hospital apologized to Harapanabar’s family in a statement stating that “it was clear that the standard of care provided had failed.”
“To avoid repeating such an event, we can reassure everyone who is concerned that we have already made changes,” he added.
Threat to mother’s life
Some American states say “Trigger method“Prohibition of abortion — some offer exceptions such as rape and incest, and currently allow abortion whenever the mother’s life is at serious risk — many Expert question How easy is it to get such an exception? In addition, asking doctors to interpret complex laws during emergency care can lead to dangerous decisions, they said.
Irish law in 2012 allowed abortion to prevent “potential serious danger or threat to the life of the mother”. However, according to Harapanavar’s report, doctors have determined that the abortion has not reached the point “allowed by Irish law.”
This is not a theoretical scenario in the United States, says Dr. Jenganta, a California-based obstetrician and gynecologist and author of “The Vagina Bible.”
“I personally had a situation where abortion was illegal in our medical center due to state law and there were patients in need of abortion,” she said in an interview, saying it was in Kansas. fact, Abortion is legal for up to 22 weeks, but there are some restrictions.
“It wasn’t a complication of pregnancy, her organs weren’t functioning because of the extra burden of pregnancy because of her underlying condition,” she added.
A lawyer at a Kansas medical center told Gunter that an abortion would not be possible unless the woman was at “imminent risk.”
“I was like,’What does that mean?’ And their interpretation was that she would die in the next three minutes,” she said. According to Gunter, hospital lawyers called the state politicians involved in the legislation and said, “Doctor, do what you think is best.”
“So I wondered,’Why then is this law?'” She said.
Ectopic pregnancy (fertilized eggs that grow outside the womb, often transplanted into the fallopian tubes and can endanger the life of the mother) is a further confusion and intolerable delay in treatment under the new law. She said it could cause.
See more from NBC News: Further confusion over state abortion law following the reversal of the Roe v. Wade case
Gunter is generous with her predictions of what the stricter abortion law means in the United States.
She said women could die, despite better antibiotics to treat septic miscarriage.
“Harapanabar? When it happens here, it will never change the situation in the United States, and it will happen.”
Ivana Bacik, a leader of the Irish Labor Party and a long-time advocate of abortion rights, decided on Monday outside the US Embassy in Dublin “in solidarity for American women and girls” by the Supreme Court. Led a protest against.
“Our experience here is that banning and criminalizing abortion puts women’s lives at risk. It’s now very clear that it’s a horrifying reality for American women.” She said.
“Removing the right to abortion from women and girls puts them at risk of life. In reality, there will be life-threatening and health-threatening conditions during pregnancy.”
Mr Basik said the story of Harapanabar helped change public opinion towards the 2018 “yes” vote. Brain dead woman In Ireland, 18 weeks gestation, life support systems were turned off for more than three weeks after being sentenced to clinical death in 2014 after a prolonged court battle.
A group of 20 women’s rights and health care charities in submitting a government review of the ongoing abortion law in Ireland Outsourced polling In March, 67% of people across the island showed support for free access to abortion. This reflects support for the 2018 “yes” vote.
Still, opponents of the right to abortion in Ireland continue to fight. A right to life rally will be held in Dublin on Saturday. There, the organizers are calling on sympathizers to “become the voices of 6,500 babies killed by abortion each year.”
Carol Nolan, an independent legislator representing members of Laois-Offaly in Midland, Ireland, opposed the 2018 legislative amendment, and Harapanavar’s death was “intentionally and continuously” by women’s rights activists. Claims to have been misrepresented.
“At that time, the overwhelming contributors to Sabita’s death were medical malpractice and mismanagement of maternal sepsis,” she said in an email, pre-2018 law (known as the Eighth Amendment). He added that he believed that it was not a barrier to seeing Harapanavar. Proportional and effective care.
“Following the abolition of the constitutional amendment, the number of abortions has exploded and there has been relentless political and non-governmental pressure to further expand the parameters of the law since 2018,” Nolan said. He said.
See more from NBC: How Roe v. Wade Overthrow Affects Access to Drug Abortion
According to the latest figures available from the national government, there were 32 abortions in Ireland in 2018, each exceeding 6,000 in the next two years.
“This was completely predictable,” Nolan added. “But it only helped to establish my own view that the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution acted as a sign of proportionality and sound law based on the true vision of human rights.”
The sometimes deadly crossroads of law and medicine in the debate have also engrossed those who support the right to abortion.
Dublin councilor Bacik Andrea PrudenteWas an American woman Denied abortion after heavy bleeding in Malta on June 12..She was airlifted to Spain, where she Received treatment And the fetus was removed.
Multiple cases of women who died after being denied an abortion Appeared from Poland, There is an almost complete abortion ban. Last year, a 30-year-old woman, known only as Isabella, who was 22 weeks pregnant, died of septic shock. Her family said.. The scan showed multiple problems with the fetus, but doctors refused to terminate it while the fetus had a heartbeat, Reuters reported.
After the death of the fetus, doctors can legally perform surgery. However, Isabella’s heart stopped on her way to the operating room to make a Caesarean section.
after that Massive protest in PolandThe flag was raised with the slogan “Her heart was also beating”.
