Save a Fetus, Kill a Woman?

So, the (mainly white male) anti-abortion activists in Mississippi are probably a hootin’ and a hollerin.’  They have  (almost) succeeded in shutting down the one and only abortion clinic in the state.  Thank you Judge Daniel P. Jordan III of United States District Court, a Republican appointee,  for letting the injunction against this dangerous piece of legislation stand.

The  antiabortionists strategy was that abortion providers would have to have hospital privileges – even though this requirement makes NO clinical sense.  Complications of legal abortions that require hospitalization are quite uncommon.  And besides, if a serious complication occurs, the abortion clinic can call an ambulance and send the patient to the hospital to be cared for by doctors who have privileges at that hospital.  But, of course, hospitals in this conservative state are not going to stand up against the religious right to preserve the right of women to safe legal abortions.  Shameful, shameful, shameful.

Want to see the real story behind the story – take a look at this quote from Bubba from a prior post on this topic (note: there used to be a video of Bubba pontificating on the topic but it has been removed from YouTube by the originator:)

“We have literally stopped abortion in the state of Mississippi. Three blocks from the Capitol sits the only abortion clinic in the state of Mississippi. A bill was drafted. It said, if you would perform an abortion in the state of Mississippi, you must be a certified OB/GYN and you must have admitting privileges to a hospital. Anybody here in the medical field knows how hard it is to get admitting privileges to a hospital…

It’s going to be challenged, of course, in the Supreme Court and all — but literally, we stopped abortion in the state of Mississippi, legally, without having to– Roe vs. Wade. So we’ve done that.  I was proud of it.  The governor signed it into law.

 And of course, there you have the other side. They’re like, ‘Well, the poor pitiful women that can’t afford to go out of state are just going to start doing them at home with a coat hanger.’ That’s what we’ve heard over and over and over.

But hey, you have to have moral values. You have to start somewhere, and that’s what we’ve decided to do. This became law and the governor signed it, and I think for one time, we were first in the nation in the state of Mississippi.”

And here are the words of Governor Phil Bryant who signed the bill into law: “Today you see the first step in a movement, I believe, to do what we campaigned on — to say we’re going to try to end abortion in Mississippi,” and “If it closes that clinic, so be it.

Yeah, let’s save some cells growing inside a woman’s body even if it means she could die. – and by the way, those cells die with her.

Do you think I am exaggerating?  Then read this from the BBC – a real life story of a woman dying because her fetus still had a heart beat:

Savita Halappanavar

“Savita Halappanavar’s family said she asked several times for her pregnancy to be terminated because she had severe back pain and was miscarrying.

Her husband told the BBC that it was refused because there was a foetal heartbeat.

Ms Halappanavar’s death, on 28 October, is the subject of two investigations.

An autopsy carried out two days after her death found she had died from septicaemia, according to the Irish Times.

Ms Halappanavar, who was 31 and originally from India, was a dentist.

Praveen Halappanavar said staff at University Hospital Galway told them Ireland was “a Catholic country”.

When asked by the BBC if he thought his wife would still be alive if the termination had been allowed, Mr Halappanavar said: “Of course, no doubt about it.”

He said Savita had been “on top of the world” before experiencing difficulties.

“It was her first baby, first pregnancy and you know she was on top of the world basically,” he said.

“She was so happy and everything was going well, she was so excited.

“On the Saturday night everything changed, she started experiencing back pain so we called into the hospital, the university hospital.”

He said she continued to experience pain and asked a consultant if she could be induced.

“They said unfortunately she can’t because it’s a Catholic country,” Mr Halappanavar said.

“Savita said to her she is not Catholic, she is Hindu, and why impose the law on her.

“But she said ‘I’m sorry, unfortunately it’s a Catholic country’ and it’s the law that they can’t abort when the foetus is live.”

The baby’s heartbeat stopped on the Wednesday.

“I got a call at about half twelve on the Wednesday night that Savita’s heart rate had really gone up and that they had moved her to ICU,” Mr Halappanavar said.

“Things just kept on getting worse and on Friday they told me that she was critically ill.”

He said some of Savita’s organs stopped functioning and she died on Sunday 28 October.”

It is interesting that the Irish doctors we worried about being charged with murder if they aborted a fetus with a heart beat.  But hearts beat when brains are dead.  Heart cells “beat” intrinsically – that doesn’t mean they are “alive.”

Savita Halappanavar was alive – a vibrant 31 year old dentist – prior to being allowed to die to preserve a fetus that couldn’t survive outside of her body.

How is it that our politicians now value a fetus – not just a fetus, but a fertilized egg (Hey Rand Paul – that’s you) more than a woman?  What if Savita were your wife, daughter, mother, sister, aunt or friend?  Would you let her die because her fetus had a heartbeat? Come on guys, play this out to the end.  Eliminating abortion in Mississippi IS going to kill some women. Roe vs Wade was enacted because the alternative to abortion was death, disability and ruined lives.  Where is the balance here?  Save a fetus and kill a woman?