I Am Ashamed That Ireland's Medieval Abortion Law Still Stands

By Emer O'Toole, Guardian UK

16 November 12

Blame for denying Savita Halappanavar a termination lies with all of us who keep quiet about abortion rights

n beautiful Galway, my home town, Savita Halappanavar died in the hospital I was born in after being denied a potentially life-saving abortion. She presented with back pain, and was found to be miscarrying. A day of agony later, knowing her pregnancy couldn't survive, she asked for a termination, but was refused. "This is a Catholic country," she was allegedly told.

As long as the foetal heart kept beating doctors would not grant her wish. It beat for three days. Halappanavar vomited, shook and collapsed. On the third day the weak sound faded to nothing and doctors removed the dead foetus. A week after she was first admitted to hospital, Halappanavar died of septicaemia.

This is a Catholic country. If these were indeed the words used by the doctors, then the hospital did not feel the need to sugarcoat its rationale with references to Halappanavar's psychological health, or the wellbeing of her foetus. Its ideology was not veiled - as Youth Defence, Precious Life and Ireland's other powerful anti-abortion lobbyists have learned to do - in the language of care and concern for women. The rationale was not cloaked in academic arguments about the moment when human life begins.

Halappanavar objected that she was neither Irish nor a Catholic: a futile attempt to appeal for choice over what was happening to her body. As a medical professional, she most likely knew that her 17-week-old foetus would not be conscious of its existence ending. But her appeal to value her life over an insentient foetus's heartbeat was ignored. There is no abortion on the pope's own island and she had no time to get to England.

I am no longer a Catholic, so I need to look for earthly explanations as to what happened to Halappanavar. The medical technology to prevent this painful, senseless death was at hand. Yet doctors did not use it. Why? One could argue that they had to obey Irish law. In The Origins of Totalitarianism, speaking of defences mounted by the perpetrators of atrocities during the Holocaust, Hannah Arendt says that adult citizens cannot obey. Children and animals can obey, but adults have the capacity to morally assess the actions that their sociopolitical systems demand of them.

Adults do not obey, they consent. And yes, the system might punish you for failing to carry out its evil will - for choosing to remove a dying, insensate foetus from the womb of a woman in agony who is begging you to do so - but fear of consequence does not absolve you. To those doctors who continued to check for a heartbeat as Halappanavar deteriorated, this is also your fault.

I know what it's like to try to speak out against anti-choice hegemony in Ireland. I know how hard it is to even form pro-choice opinions at all. Like 95% of people schooled in Ireland, I had a Catholic education and was heavily propagandised against abortion. More, I had to navigate the biased information offered by the Irish press. RTÉ, our national broadcaster, did not even report on a 2,000-strong pro-choice march in Dublin earlier this year, while it continues to cover anti-abortion movements in the provinces. Teachers and journalists, this is your fault too.

Of course, this is made difficult in a country in which the entire political system, against the will of the electorate, enforces medieval attitudes to abortion. In 1992 the supreme court ruled that a suicidal teenage rape victim had the right to an abortion. In the referendum that followed, Irish people voted to uphold this judgment. Yet, 20 years later, no government has been brave enough to legislate. In 2010 the European court of human rights ruled against the Irish state in favour of a woman who had to travel to the UK to terminate a pregnancy while undergoing chemotherapy. Still Enda Kenny, our devoutly Catholic taoiseach, has said that abortion is "not of priority" for his government. Kenny, James Reilly, the health minister, and every other Dáil member - this is your fault too. You are responsible for the pain Halappanavar's loved ones are going through.

To her family, I want to say: I am ashamed, I am culpable, and I am sorry. For every letter to my local politician I didn't write, for every protest I didn't join, for keeping quiet about abortion rights in the company of conservative relations and friends, for becoming complacent, for thinking that Ireland was changing, for not working hard enough to secure that change, for failing to create a society in which your wife, your daughter, your sister was able to access the care that she needed: I am sorry. You must think that we are barbarians.

Mitt's Right, Obama Won Because of "Gifts"

By Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News

15 November 12

K, maybe Mitt was trying to say President Obama bought the election, so I guess he wasn't really right. The gifts I am talking about come at birth or are developed in one's upbringing. I am talking about gifts like empathy, compassion and charisma.

Those are gifts that Mitt was shortchanged on. It wasn't Mitt's fault, he had a privileged upbringing. When Mitt thinks about healthcare, education and other human needs, he is only thinking of the bottom line. That's the gift Mitt brings to the table. If you are a shareholder in a business then you want Mitt Romney at the helm, he will look out for your interests. Your profit margin will be more important than the needs of the people who do the work that fattens your bank accounts.

In case you haven't heard, in a conference call with big donors yesterday, Mitt Romney blamed his loss on President Obama giving "gifts" to constituencies.

From The Times' report: "With regards to the young people, for instance, a forgiveness of college loan interest was a big gift," Mr. Romney said. "Free contraceptives were very big with young, college-aged women. And then, finally, Obamacare also made a difference for them, because as you know, anybody now 26 years of age and younger was now going to be part of their parents' plan, and that was a big gift to young people. They turned out in large numbers, a larger share in this election even than in 2008."

The president's healthcare plan, he said, was also a useful tool in mobilizing black and Hispanic voters. Though Mr. Romney won the white vote with 59 percent, according to exit polls, minorities coalesced around the president in overwhelming numbers: 93 percent of blacks and 71 percent of Hispanics.

"You can imagine for somebody making $25,000 or $30,000 or $35,000 a year, being told you're now going to get free healthcare, particularly if you don't have it, getting free healthcare worth, what, $10,000 per family, in perpetuity - I mean, this is huge," Mr. Romney said. "Likewise with Hispanic voters, free healthcare was a big plus. But in addition with regards to Hispanic voters, the amnesty for children of illegals, the so-called Dream Act kids, was a huge plus for that voting group."

Mitt thinks that when President Obama fought to allow young adults to stay on their parents' healthcare plans that he was "gifting" them in exchange for their vote. You see Mitt didn't "have" to pay for his healthcare when he was in school or just starting out. I'm not saying that he didn't pay. I would have to see his tax returns to know, but if Mitt got sick when he was young, he didn't have to go without healthcare because his parents could afford the best doctors money could buy. Most of us understand that the people who will be staying on their parents' healthcare plan need to be there. For many people, no insurance means suffering through illnesses because they can't afford a visit to the doctor. It wasn't a bribe Mitt, it was a promise delivered.

When it comes to interest rates on student loans, I don't think George Romney charged interest to Mitt. That is, if Mitt ever borrowed money from his dad as he suggested to students as a way to start a business. That lack of empathy explains why Mitt thinks that relief on student-loan interest rates is a bribe. In my opinion, Obama did not go far enough on student loans, but if he wanted to buy votes he would have given everyone a Pell grant.

Mitt also thinks that immigrants and minorities think that Obamacare was a handout to them. He expressed that attitude in his famous 47% speech. Mitt wrote minorities and young people off months ago, Obamacare was again a promise kept. It is not free healthcare. Young people who are not on their parents' plan have to buy in. The mandate is not popular with young people, but they didn't see anything better from Romney and Ryan.

The timing of the action on Dream Act may have been suspect. To be fair though, Obama supported the Dream Act and tried to get it through Congress before this year. Again a promise kept. Obama didn't keep all his promises to immigrants, besides, those taking advantage of the Dream Act didn't vote, they are on a path - but not citizens yet.

I don't think the actions that Mitt Romney cited in his call with major donors were "gifts" from Obama, they were promises kept. We all know who would be getting "gifts" if Mitt Romney won the election. Many of them were on that conference call.

Scott Galindez attended Syracuse University, where he first became politically active. The writings of El Salvador's slain archbishop Oscar Romero and the on-campus South Africa divestment movement converted him from a Reagan supporter to an activist for Peace and Justice. Over the years he has been influenced by the likes of Philip Berrigan, William Thomas, Mitch Snyder, Don White, Lisa Fithian, and Paul Wellstone. Scott met Marc Ash while organizing counterinaugural events after George W. Bush's first stolen election. Scott will be spending a year covering the presidential election from Iowa.

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.