The Greatest Shame: Savita

The posters still hang outside the Dail for the children’s referendum as people gather for a candlelit vigil in sadness and in anger over Savita Halappanavar’s death. One says ‘Protect Children’. Yes, protect children, little boys and little girls. But even after another referendum was held decades ago, a Supreme Court ruling made 20 years, or five general elections, ago the government still won’t introduce legislation to protect women.

Savita died last month in Galway University Hospital. She was refused an abortion even though the baby had zero chance of survival because of our lack of political will and lack of legislation. She waited in agony for days as doctors refused to perform the abortion as the fetus still had a heartbeat. This meant her cervix would not close and she developed septicaemia. When the fetus' heartbeat finally stopped, it was removed but Savita died sometime later.


What can you say about this? It is horrible, sad, disgusting, disgraceful, heartbreaking, sickening, despicable, but words don't cut it. You could get the greatest writers who ever lived to weigh in on this and Shakespeare would be lost trying to grip the feeling around it. It would take James Joyce longer than he took to write Ulysses to come close to expressing it.

A woman in a supposedly developed nation lying on a bed in agony being told ‘This is a Catholic country’ so you can’t have proper medical treatment, a woman dying because she couldn’t get a simple medical procedure. Jesus was meant to be a caring person who wanted everyone to go to heaven. What happened in Galway sounds like hell. There is nothing pro-life about this. The fetus is dead, Savita is dead.

The main focus should be on this woman and empathy with her family. But how can you not get angry? It's been twenty fucking years since the 'X' case and no government has had the balls to do anything about it. A woman died because TDs are too afraid to annoy a section of society they know will vote in every election. Young and middle aged women obviously do not matter.  Irish politicians, past and present, need to feel great shame today. You have failed at your job, you have failed a gender in your country and you are a bunch of cowards.

Legislation that may have saved Savita’s life was before the Dail earlier this year and the government voted it down. They said that something like this wouldn’t happen, that the legislation was there to deal with this kind of thing. Well, it has happened and now you have no more excuses. 15 Fine Gael TDs said if the government introduced such legislation they would vote against it, even with the government whip. I’m guessing those TDs are very silent somewhere right now.

The tragedy is terrifying for pregnant women in this country. And it should be terrifying for everyone else because as was said outside the Dail this evening it could be your mother, your sister, your wife or girlfriend who is next. If the government doesn’t act on this it is more shameful than the way the previous government acted during the banking crisis. If you knew someone was in real danger of being shot to death you would be expected to tell the Gardai. The government is expected to protect the lives of women and they did nothing. 


They have said they were waiting on the expert group report they commissioned on the European Court of Human Rights ruling on the ‘X’ case before doing anything. I read last night that this had just landed on Minister for Health, James Reilly’s desk. How convenient? Now you must legislate on this as soon as it can be done properly, which shouldn’t be that long. Ireland is a proud nation and has held onto this throughout our financial meltdown but it has been shaken by Savita's death.

Politicians sitting in today’s Dail and in their homes on retirement have questions to answer. There is a long streak of slime from a slug of backboneless governments. And as you sit sucking your thumbs underneath tables in Leinster House trying to think of bullshit excuses remember you have no right to spin this. You fucked up. You should kiss the feet of Savita’s family because you owe them more than you’ll ever be able to give back. Her heart was broken from losing a child; it was stopped by your inaction.

A protest will be held tomorrow 17/12 at 4pm in Dublin. We will meet at the Garden of Rememberance and march to the dail. You have a responsibility to go to this if you can. I'm not asking, I'm telling.