Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

We must consider this from the point of view of Ms Savita Halappanavar's husband, Praveen. He has come out publicly because he does not want this to happen to any woman ever again. He does not want any other woman to endure the tragedy he has had to face in recent days.

On 21 October Savita Halappanavar presented at the University Hospital Galway with back pain.

She was informed that she was miscarrying and that it would be over in two and a half to three hours. On Monday morning, in severe pain, she asked for a termination of the pregnancy. She was refused and told it could not be done. When she was in more pain on Tuesday morning, she and her husband asked the same question and again she was refused and told it was not going to happen until the foetal heartbeat stopped. She became terribly sick on the Tuesday night, suffering from fever. When the foetal heartbeat was checked on Wednesday, it had stopped. The medical personnel removed the foetus from the womb, but in the next few days Savita became extremely ill, eventually dying of septicaemia. From the time her cervix was dilated, she was open to serious infection - it was similar to having an open head wound - and Savita was left without proper care and without immediate action.

If our Bill had been accepted by the Government, we could have prevented this, as the doctors in that hospital would have been protected by legislation in assisting Savita. It is a damning indictment of six successive Governments that they have refused to take matters into their own hands and make a decision on it. It is a shame that we have allowed this to happen. The European Court of Human Rights has found that successive Governments have failed to vindicate the Constitution.

We must hear the Minister's comments today on the following two matters. There should be an independent public investigation into this incident within a specific timeframe, and the Minister should allow time for our Bill to become through. He can propose amendments to it, but let us bring it into the Dáil immediately.

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