Catholic Law Causes Death

Savita Halappanavar died after being denied an abortion.

Time and time again, humans have debated over the delicate subject of abortion, but for an Indian woman living in Ireland, she was denied one which cost her life.

On October 21, 2012 in Ireland, 31-year-old Indian woman Savita Halappanavar was refused an abortion because of the strict nation-wide anti-abortion laws.

Halappanavar and her husband went to the hospital because she was complaining of back pain. From a CNN report, the examining doctors informed Halappanavar that she was in the midst of a miscarriage that would end in a matter of hours.

From a an Irish Times report, Halappanavar spent the next three days in agony until the fetus' heartbeat stopped, while she also asked several times for her demanded pregnancy termination. The doctor's refused because of the Catholic anti-abortion law.

Savita and her husband, Praveen, dancing.

Praveen Halappanavar, Savita's husband, told CNN, "On Tuesday morning, she came back and [the doctors] said that 'I'm sorry, we can't help you because [Ireland is] a Catholic country. We can't help it, it's a Catholic thing.' So we just said that she's not Catholic, she's a Hindu, so why impose the law on her?"

Halappanavar was 17 weeks pregnant and she died from, what IBN Live says doctors said was, blood poisoning a week after abortion denial.

Two women protest for Halappanavar and women everywhere.

Ever since then, many organizations have made public protests throughout other nations around the world in Halappanavar's name. Some of them coming from the side of pro-choice and others from the side of women's rights.

This having happened has sparked major controversy and further question on when, if ever, is it ok to terminate a fetus. The Catholic Church  says never but then others say women have the right to do what they please with their own bodies. This grueling and hurtful debate between pro-life and pro-choice organizations has been going on for so long and it's difficult to say when it will end, if it will ever.