Life Links 11/15/12

I'm amazed at the amount of and the prominence of the coverage over the death of Savita Halappanavar (a pregnant woman living in Ireland whom doctors allegedly refused to induce when she was having a miscarriage until the child's heartbeat stopped) compared to the deaths of women like Tonya Reaves, who die when an abortion is botched. 

Eilis Mulroy provides some basic reasoning to a tragic situation abortion advocates are attempting to parlay into liberalized abortion laws in Ireland.

The question that needs to be asked is: was Ms Halappanavar treated in line with existing obstetrical practice in Ireland? In this kind of situation the baby can be induced early (though is very unlikely to survive). The decision to induce labour early would be fully in compliance with the law and the current guidelines set out for doctors by the Irish Medical Council

Those guidelines allow interventions to treat women where necessary, even if that treatment indirectly results in the death to the baby. If they aren't being followed, laws about abortion won't change that.

The issue then becomes about medical protocols being followed in hospitals and not about the absence of legal abortion in Ireland.

A Nevada judge has decided not to force a woman who is mental impaired to have an abortion. 

The 32-year-old woman's legal guardian told KRNV-TV (http://tinyurl.com/ag7jete) on Wednesday that Judge Egan Walker had agreed that the woman wants to carry the pregnancy to term and that the evidence doesn't show it's medically necessary to abort the baby.

After taking the abortion option off the table, Walker said he plans to hold additional medical evidentiary hearings in the weeks ahead to determine the safest way to proceed.

The Washington Post's Election 2012 Blog writes about the money Planned Parenthood spent on the election.

Combined, the two Planned Parenthood advocacy groups say they spent $15 million on ads, phone calls, events, mail and door-to-door canvassing. In 2008, their campaign spending was about $4 million total.

In large part, Planned Parenthood's success is due to President Obama's victory. Most of the groups' money went towards boosting Obama or attacking Romney. Eighty-seven percent of funds spent by Planned Parenthood Action Fund and 80 percent of spending by Planned Parenthood Votes went toward the presidential race, according to the Sunlight Foundation tallies.