Ireland must make hospitals safe for women by following abortion laws Once it was clear that they could not save her baby, Mrs Halappanavar repeatedly asked that doctors induce an end to the pregnancy, according to her husband. "The consultant said, "As long as there is a foetal heartbeat we can't do anything,"" according to Mr Halappanavar. And hours later, his wife died of blood poisoning. Two investigations - one by University Hospital Galway, the other by Ireland's health executive - are now under way into the circumstances of the death of Mrs Halappanavar's death. In Ireland, a woman has a legal right to an abortion where there is a "real and substantial" risk to her life. But there are no official guidelines for doctors, who remain unclear as to where they stand. Rather than follow the medical course that would save Mrs Halappanavar's life, the doctors insulted this seriously ill Hindu woman by imposing (their?) Catholic beliefs on her. Mr Halappanavar, an engineer at Boston Scientific, in Galway, informed doctors that his wife was neither Irish nor Catholic, but they said there was nothing they could do. This is ridiculous. Last month Dublin's High Court ignored the religious beliefs of a Jehovah's Witness, by overruling her signed, written instruction refusing a blood transfusion that would save her life. So why on earth did they deny Mrs Halappanavar life-saving treatment? The tragic loss of Mrs Halappanavar's life has prompted pro-choice campaigners in Ireland to highlight the worrying findings of a symposium in September, in which experts in obstetrics, gynaecology and mental health concluded that "abortion is not medically necessary to save the life of a woman." "We uphold that there is a fundamental difference between abortion, and necessary medical treatments that are carried out to save the life of the mother, even if such treatment results in the loss of life of her unborn child," symposium organisers concluded in a press release regarding the Dublin Declaration on Maternal Healthcare. We confirm that the prohibition of abortion does not affect, in any way, the availability of optimal care to pregnant women. The Irish government is currently planning a report on possible reforms following the European court ruling in 2010, which declared the absolute ban on abortion to be a breach of women's human rights. Enda Kenny, the taoiseach, has said he will not be "rushed" into any measures while the two independent inquiries are under way. But surely there is an imperative to rush. Laws to protect women's lives were enacted two years ago, yet they are not being followed by doctors in hospitals. And mothers - and babies - are dying. "Doctors need to know they can trust their own judgment and won't be prosecuted - because the problem with "real and substantial risk" to a woman's life is who decides at what point that occurs?" asks Clare Murphy, director of external affairs at the British Pregnancy Advisory Service. Do doctors need to wait until the woman is at risk of imminent death before they can intervene, when treatment could be provided at a much earlier stage? Anti-abortion activists in Ireland have long said that sick pregnant women in Ireland get all the care they need - we know not just from this appalling case but from our own experience at the British Pregnancy Advisory Service that this is not the case. This case must force the Irish government to act on the judgment from the European Court of Human Rights on implementing existing rights to abortion in Ireland. This judgment was reached two years ago," said Ms Murphy. The absolute travesty is that nothing has been done sooner to prevent cases like the one we have just seen. The pro-choice movement has lots of catchy slogans: get your rosaries off my ovaries, for one. It is not my goal to change the minds of those opposed to abortion on the grounds of their religious beliefs. (Though the hypocrisy of religious objectors is staggering. Ireland is "a Catholic country"? The divorce rate has more than doubled in the last decade. Birth control is widely available. As is pre-marital sex. Weekly church attendance rates are below half.) Everyone is entitled to his or her own religious beliefs. But it is unconscionable for religious beliefs get in the way of following Irish law and providing the best possible medical care for a patient. To prevent a woman - who, let's not forget, is in physical pain and grieving for her lost child - from having a life-saving procedure is irresponsible and inexcusable. Despite what you read in the anti-abortion press, terminating a pregnancy is not purely a cleanup operation after a messy drunken night out; sometimes doctors must make the difficult choice between the life of a mother and baby. And in that case, it is morally inexcusable, whatever your beliefs, not to prioritise the life that already exists. Ireland must act immediately to follow the 2009 European court ruling, before more women needlessly die in the name of religion.