When a heavily pregnant Savita Halappanavar went to Galway University Hospital at the end of last October in agonising pain she was given the devastating news that her baby was dying inside of her. However, Ireland’s blanket ban on abortion meant that her repeated requests for a termination were refused because there was still a foetal heartbeat. ‘Ireland is a Catholic country’, doctors apparently told her husband as he watched his wife grow more and more ill. Savita died a week later from septicaemia.

The anger provoked by her death was felt both in Ireland and around the world, most notably in Savita’s home country of India. Savita had placed her trust in a system that promised to provide the care she needed and she had been let down. However, what made the case so shocking was not only the needless loss of life, not only the mention of the Catholic faith to a Hindu woman as some kind of justification but that, if a previous Supreme Court ruling on a case dating back to 1992 had been acted upon, Savita might still be alive.

The case in question, famously known as the X case, involved a 14- year- old pregnant girl who had been the victim of rape and wanted a termination. Her ordeal and the resulting unwanted pregnancy had left her suffering from severe depression and suicidal. The Supreme Court eventually ruled that Irish women had the right to an abortion if the pregnant woman’s life was at risk, including the risk of suicide. While the girl sadly suffered a miscarriage before a termination could be carried out, the news at least brought hope that women in similar positions whose lives were at risk would not have to suffer in the same way. It seemed like a step in the right direction. Action following the Supreme Court ruling however was something that politicians managed to dodge for twenty years.

The current government and its predecessors’ reluctance to legislate on the matter, to clarify when an abortion can or cannot be carried out, is a reflection of the Irish politicians’ cowardice and self- interest, stemming from their distinct unwillingness to engage with controversial matters. Once again, their primary concern proves to be protecting their vote count rather than a real interest in the future welfare of women in already heart-wrenchingly difficult positions.

The doctor’s reference to the Catholic Church is particularly hard for many people in Ireland to stomach. Religion should have no influence over Irish law and should not play any role in the decision-making process and, after the child abuse scandals of recent years, it seems even more ludicrous that we should look to the church for guidance on children’s rights. Yet despite this we continue to see the views of outspoken bishops dominating headlines.

When people took to the streets in the wake of Savita’s death what they wanted was a real debate. What they wanted was real change. The state had failed Savita, just as it had failed the girl in the X case, just as it had failed all the other women who have come forward with their own horrifying and heart-breaking stories since. And for every woman that comes forward, there are doubtless countless others who feel too frightened to do so –when an overwhelming taboo continues to surround abortion quashing any chance of open and honest debate. Instead we are left with a media battle of dirty tactics, death threats and incidences such as the recent shocking appearance of graphic posters displaying aborted foetuses outside schools and crèches. It doesn’t make sense that those who claim they are protecting children should have no concern for the effect these misleading and disturbing posters might have on children.

Of course, much of the Irish abortion controversy doesn’t make sense. Legislating on the X case doesn’t mean abortion will be available as some kind of easy-access contraception method as many anti-abortionists like to claim. There’s an obvious difference between “abortion on demand” and the protection of the mother’s life if it is endangered and sooner, rather than later, Irish law must come to recognise this before more lives are lost. .