Abortion and godlings

The desire to favour ideology over compassion for women has surfaced in Ireland in very distressing way. A pregnant woman (Savita Halappanavar) was admitted to University Hospital Galway (UHG), where she was found to be miscarrying and soon was in severe pain. Savita died of septicaemia a week later. Why did Savita die? According to an article in The Irish Times a request for a medical termination was refused because the foetal heartbeat was still present, and “this is a Catholic country”. Perhaps the doctors (godlings?) would also claim that even after rape any pregnancy is “something that God intended to happen” (believed by some in the USA)?

A necessary medical treatment to save the life of the mother because of foetal termination. We have a case where the perceived “rights” of a foetus (who had not been born) superseded the rights of a woman (who had been born) – this unfortunate position appears throughout many conservative political ideologies. Often “abortion” is a political issue dressed in religious clothes.

The rights of the born woman

Given the many arguments about abortion, conclusions about embryos and foetuses are neither self-evident nor unambiguous truths – what is self-evident (and a truth) is that a woman has a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. If  you believe that life is a gift from a god and all fertilized eggs should be allowed to come to term then, logically, no matter the circumstances of fertilization, nobody should stop any embryo coming to term. Of course, this means any woman has a life that is a gift from a god, because she was once an embryo and then a foetus.