An inquest into a woman who travelled from Ireland to the UK for an abortion and subsequently died as a result of the procedure has not found her death to be due to negligence. The coroner, Dr Sean Cummings, identified an “element of complacency” within the west London clinic, but said he could not return a verdict of neglect as invited because he was not satisfied there had been a gross failure. He did criticise “repeated failures” at the Marie Stopes abortion clinic and said the case was “desperately sad”.
“Her death resulted from the manifestation of a recognised complication of the procedure resulting in sometimes subtle and atypical symptoms and signs which were not appreciated as potentially sinister at the time”.
Ms Chithira died in January 2012 following a late-stage abortion. Ms Chithira suffered a tear to her uterus during the “blind” procedure performed under anaesthetic, as a surgeon struggled to remove the dismembered parts of a 22-week-old foetus from her womb. Afterwards she vomited and complained of feeling unwell to her husband, but was helped into a taxi to a cousin’s home in Slough by staff who had told her she could not stay overnight. Later that night the mother suffered catastrophic internal bleeding of around two litres and died. Dr Adedayo Adedeji, who performed the procedure, and nurses Gemma Pullen and Margaret Miller were charged with manslaughter by gross negligence and a health and safety breach but the case was dropped in 2016.
The minister for health is engaged in a campaign of misinformation about his own proposed abortion legislation, Save the 8th has said today. The organisation challenged the Minister to debate the heads of the bill, which have already been published, rather than “name calling through a press officer”. The organisation pointed to several inconsistencies between the heads of the bill, and Minister Harris’s own public statements about the bill.
A spokesperson for Save The 8th said that Minister Harris has said that “late term abortions will be illegal”. However, the spokesperson said there is no such prohibition on late term abortions in the heads of bill published by the Government. He continued: “Minister Harris has said that in cases where the foetus can survive outside the womb, the baby will be delivered. However, no such provision exists in his bill. Indeed, ‘termination of pregnancy’ is defined in his bill as: ‘termination of pregnancy means a medical procedure which is intended to end the life of the foetus'”.
Most prominently, according to Savethe8th, Minister Harris said in a statement last week that it was a “big lie” to say abortions would be legal at six months. “This is patently and obviously untrue. The heads of the bill allow an abortion until viability where there is a risk of serious harm to the mental health of the mother, where ‘serious harm’ is undefined in the bill”, said the spokesperson.
Family-run Ashers Baking Company should not be forced to promote a cause which its owners profoundly disagree with, a columnist says. Writing in the Belfast Telegraph, Fionola Meredith said Ashers’ situation was “not a case of anti-gay discrimination” because the row is over a message – not an individual. Meredith explained that she supports same-sex marriage but disagrees with earlier court rulings against the Christian bakers viewing it as an issue of compelled speech rather than gay rights. “No company should be under any obligation to facilitate the dissemination of beliefs that are antithetical to the ethos of that business. . . . The message itself – not the customer requesting it – has always been the issue for Ashers.”
The columnist described the long-running legal case brought by the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland as “costly, vexatious and divisive”. She said it was not equality to force everyone to “disseminate political beliefs that they fundamentally disagree with”.
“It is not tolerance. It is not freedom. If Ashers lose this week, we all lose”.
The Anglican communion is sharply divided over plans by The Episcopal Church (TEC) in the US to change its marriage service to a gay-friendly version which would remove “husband and wife” and “procreation” from the marriage service.
The new service removes the phrase “the union of husband and wife” and replaces it with “the union of two people”, and replaces the section which talks about part of God’s intention for marriage being “for the procreation of children” with the phrase “for the gift of children” to make it more relevant for same-sex couples who may wish to adopt. Couples can still use the individual words “husband” or “wife” when making their vows, though the gender-neutral “spouse” is also an option.
The move was criticised in a letter from the Church of England’s Secretary General William Nye which threatened to cut ties with the US church, if it introduces the new service as standard, replacing the current wording in its Book of Common Prayer. Mr Nye urged the church to consider keeping the new service on “trial status” indefinitely to avoid “irrevocably redefining marriage”, adding that the new rites “constitute a clear divergence from the understanding of marriage held throughout the history of the Christian Church”.
The Save the 8th campaign on Thursday morning unveiled a position paper outlining how the Government’s abortion bill introduces abortion for healthy babies at six months. The general scheme of the Govt’s proposed legislation states that it shall be lawful to carry out a termination of a pregnancy where there is risk of serious harm to the health of the pregnant woman. John McGuirk, communications director for the Save the 8th campaign, said 97 per cent of all abortions in the UK happen on mental health grounds. Niamh Uí Bhriain, chairwoman of Save the 8th, said “We’re going to make sure voters know that this is abortion on mental health grounds, the same model as the UK model of abortion right up to six months of a baby’s life. This will result in healthy babies being aborted right up to six months, that’s a very frightening prospect and a huge cultural change in this country”.
A new study shows that Ireland’s personal tax burden for one-income families not only rose in 2017, it recorded the largest increase anywhere, at 2.9 percentage points. In contrast, there were large decreases in Poland (5.1 percentage points) and Luxembourg (one percentage point).The survey also reveals the chasm that has opened up between families with children and single earners without.
Ireland is said to have a “fiscal preference” for families and this is highlighted by the report, published on Thursday. While it is on the rise, one-income families on the average wage and with children give up just 1.2 per cent of their income on tax. That is one of the lowest tax burdens in the OECD. The 1.2 per cent net personal average tax rate for such families with children contrasts with a rate of 19.4 per cent for a single worker on the same wage. This is the third lowest of the 35 countries surveyed, alongside Canada, and behind only the Czech Republic (0.7 per cent) and Poland. The net personal tax rate is after taking into account transfers like Child Benefit.
The Save the 8th campaign has called on Dr Peter Boylan to resign as chairman of the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists following comments he made in an interview with Hot Press magazine. In the interview, Dr Boylan is quoted as saying: “Savita Halappanavar died as a result of the Eighth Amendment. Michelle Harte, who was looked after by Professor Louise Kenny, died as a consequence of the Eighth Amendment. Sheila Hodgers died as a consequence of the Eighth Amendment. We have the Miss P Case.” John McGuirk, communications director for the Save the 8th campaign, said the claim that four women had died due to the amendment was false and that more than 3,000 people had signed a petition calling for Dr Boylan to resign over the matter as of Thursday morning.
