Savita Halappanavar

Now Playing: Sad Beautiful Tragic by Taylor Swift (you've got your demons and darling, they all look like me)

On October 21 Savita Halappanavar died of blood poisoning from miscarriage in Ireland after being refused a abortion. She was seventeen weeks pregnant, and her foetus was dying and unviable.

The reason? Religion. Quite literally. Ireland's draconian laws of contraception and abortion are based on conservative Catholic teachings on sexual morality, and so Savita Halappanavar, an Indian Hindu, was refused an abortion because 'Ireland is a Catholic country'. Where can I even begin? A violation of religious rights, of the right to make decisions for one's body, of the right to life.

Whatever your stance on abortion, valuing the life of a unviable, dying foetus over that of the mother is disgusting. This poor woman died after a week of agony from blood poisoning as a result of an infection caused by her miscarriage and her life could have been saved by an abortion. Savita Halappanavar died because some assholes calling themselves 'doctors' put their religious beliefs over the life of a mother.

You'd expect this kind of story to come from some underprivileged African society but no, this is from Ireland. The Western Hemisphere. On the doorstep of the UK.

I am personally pro-life. I would not personally consider an abortion unless it was rape, incest, or a risk to my own life. Setting aside that if Savita Halappanavar had been given an abortion it would definitely constitute 'saving her life' to any sane person, I know that my opinions are my opinions and I have no right to impose them on other people - which is why I am pro-choice. You can choose to have an abortion. You can choose not to. And either way doctors are obliged to respect your wishes and to save your life - which is, you know, the whole purpose of having doctors.

Rest in peace, Savita Halappanavar.