Ireland abortion row: friend confirms abortion was denied
London: A friend of Indian dentist Savita Halappanavar, who died after being denied an abortion in Ireland, testified during an inquest on Tuesday that medical staff at Galway University Hospital refused to carry out the termination of her pregnancy. During the second day of hearings at the Galway Courthouse in Ireland, Mrudula Vasepalli, told the inquest that when a request for a termination of pregnancy was made, a midwife said, “We don’t do that here dear, it’s a Catholic thing”. She had visited Savita at the University College Hospital on October 23, five days before her 17-week pregnant friend died from blood poisoning as a result of a miscarriage. During lengthy cross examination by Declan Buckley, acting on behalf of the hospital and its staff, Vasepalli was adamant that was what she had heard. Buckley said there was no record of such a conversation in any medical notes. The friend’s account matches husband Praveen Halappanavar’s statement on Monday that his wife’s two requests for a termination were denied by the doctor who said that Ireland “is a Catholic country”….