For the international abortion lobby, the whole story was just too convenient to be true: at the very moment when the Irish government is discussing controversial plans to liberalize abortion, a pregnant woman dies in an Irish hospital because she was denied an abortion that would have saved her life. “This is a Catholic country”, the doctors callously told her, so there was no other solution for her than to die at age 31. Upon learning this, thousands of enraged citizens flock to “spontaneous” demonstrations all over the country, shouting their anger at the country’s “retrograde legislation that puts the lives of young women at risk” and (of course!) against the Catholic Church and its nefarious influence in Irish politics.
But what are the facts?
Firstly, Ireland has one of the lowest rates of maternal mortality in the World. While in Ireland only 6 in 100.000 women die of complications related to pregnancy, in the UK the figure is 12 and in the US 21. In both countrie, abortion is legal (and one is tempted to wonder whether that is not one of the reason for many pregnancy related deaths).
Secondly, it now appears that the young woman did not at all die of a complication related to pregnancy. Her autopsy has revealed that she died of blood poisoning and E. coli ESBL, an antibiotic-resistant strain of the bacterium. E. coli ESBL has recently spread throughout the U.K., causing urinary tract infections which can develop into blood poisoning.
One again, the abortion lobby has erected a monument to its own disingenuity. Sometimes it would be good to simply get the facts before launching an emotional debate that could potentially cost the lives of many women and children…
