Savita, abortion, and xenophobia

You will be aware of Savita Halappanavar? The woman who died having spent three-and-a-half agonising days with a miscarried foetus that University Hospital Galway doctors would not induce a termination on because it, however unviable, "had a heartbeat".

There has been considerable debate in Ireland since.

Mind you, "debate" is a very middle-class term in itself. 

 It is very easy to "debate" something that does not, or might never, affect you in the course of your life. "Debates" are usually about others.

It is nice to see, however, that successive Irish governments' inaction since the X-case on abortion rights has been called into question, and there have been demonstrations outside the Irish parliament on the issue. Good, and not before time.


It is sad, however, that it has taken this matter to provoke a belated "debate" on abortion rights in Ireland.   Interesting too, are the many xenophobic interpretations surrounding the issue.  

There was a letter in the Irish Independent during the week, admonishing Savita's husband for his temerity in questioning Ireland and its institutions. Bloody foreigners, eh? How dare they do something that Irish people, institutionally incapable of criticising their elite's nation state, will never do?


I even spoke to a neighbour of mine - a lovely old dear who you couldn't otherwise fault - who opined that people who had such criticisms of Ireland should stay in their own countries. Her daughter and son-in-law, by the way, send their children to a Gaelscoil because (by their admission) they feel they will be less likely to share a classroom with "blacks and foreigners".


That was the term used. Though I don't know what their opinions might have been on the likes of Paul McGrath or Phil Lynnott. The former quotation-marked improper nouns not  being necessarily mutually inclusive.


"If yer not with us, yer against us", it seems.

However  it might be defined.

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