Maternal Death
Blogged by James Preece on 16th November 2012
I'm sure you've all read in the news by now about the tragic death of Savita Halappanavar and I hope her husband and family are in your prayers.
Pro-choice campaigners have jumped on this to say that Savita died because abortion is illegal in Ireland and that if abortion were legal in Ireland then she would have survived. That's debatable. Many questions have been raised about the treatment Savita received and it's by no means certain that the lack of abortion was the deciding factor in her death.
What pro-choice campaigners are careful to avoid mentioning is the number of perfectly healthy women with perfectly healthy babies who die during abortion procedures. If abortion had been illegal, those women would still be alive.
The real elephant in the room here are the World Health Organisation statistics on Maternal Mortality Rates (pdf report). Here are the figures for the number of maternal deaths in 2010 per 100,000 live births in those terrifying dangerous countries where abortion is illegal...
Poland: 5
Malta: 8
Ireland: 6
So in Ireland, in 2010, six pregnant women died for every 100,000 live births. Now let's compare that with some civilised, safe countries where abortion is legal...
United States of America: 21
United Kingdom: 12
This is the real scandal - here in the UK pregnant women are twice as likely to die as in Ireland. That's my wife and daughters (and yours) we are talking about here. Yet where is the outrage? The protests? Who cares about the women who die in the UK who wouldn't have died in Ireland?
Nobody. Because their deaths cannot be cynically exploited for political gain.
So here's an idea, before the highly civilised baby-killling types get on their high horse about the death of Savita Halappanavar, perhaps they could explain why it is that so many more mothers are dying in hospitals where abortion is allowed?
Reader Comments
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Chrysostom said...
Thank you for this enlightening comment. These statistics will not be in the Grauniad or on its broadcast version the BBC.
Our Lady Help of Christians - pray for us.
St Athanasius - pray for us
All Ye English Martyrs - pray for us.
St. Charles Lwanga and Companion Martyrs of Uganda, who died resisting homosexual rape - pray for us.
Collect of the day - St Gertrude
O God, who in the heart of the holy Virgin Gertrude didst provide for Thyself a pleasant dwelling: through her merits and intercession, do Thou, in Thy mercy, wash all stains from our hearts and grant us joyful fellowship with her. Through...
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Catherine said...
Schedule-The Icon of Jasna Góra in Defence of Life
9:50 09/11/2012
The Icon will be venerated at the following locations across Ireland:
BELFAST—Saturday, 17 November, St Peter’s Cathedral (11 am, Veneration; 12 noon Holy Mass)
LIMAVADY—Saturday, 17 November, Drummond Hotel, Ballykelly (3 pm, Holy Mass)
LIMAVADY—Saturday, 17 November, St Mary’s Church (7.30 pm, Vigil Mass, Veneration until 10 pm)
LIMAVADY—Sunday, 18 November, St Mary’s Church (9 am & 11 am, Holy Mass)
BALLYMENA—Sunday, 18 November, All Saints Church (3 pm, Veneration; 4 pm Mass)
Queen’s University Catholic Chaplaincy (Mass at 8 pm and veneration after Mass)
KNOCK—Monday, 19 November, The Icon arrives at the Shrine before the 12 noon Mass and remains for 24 hours.
KNOCK—Tuesday, 20 November, The Shrine (the Icon will leave at 1pm after the 12 pm Mass)
GALWAY—Tuesday, 20 November, Poor Clare Convent 4pm till 1pm on Wednesday.
DUBLIN—Thursday, 22 November, Family & Life Office (10am – 4pm by invitation only).
DUBLIN—Friday, 23 November, Disciples of the Divine Master, White’s Cross, Stillorgan (7.25 am – 4.00 pm, Mass & Adoration)
DUBLIN—Friday, 23 November, Ss Peter & Paul Russian Orthodox Church, Harold’s Cross (6 – 7 pm, Akathist to the Mother of God).
DUBLIN—Friday, 23 November, St Saviour’s Church, Dominick St (8pm – 9.30 pm, Holy Hour, Compline/Night prayer)
CORK—Saturday, 24 November, St Augustine’s Church, Washington St (9 am – 12 noon, Masses)
Sunday, 25 November, Leaves for France.
If you would like to attend the private veneration of the Icon at our office in Dublin on November 22 and have not already registered, please call the office (01 855 2790) so that we can plan for what numbers to expect. For further details about the visit, please see www.familyandlife.org and http://www.prolife.ie/events/ocean-ocean- czestochowa-icon-black-madonna
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Nicolas Bellord said...
The statistics for maternal death actually went up after the Abortion Act 1967 as a result of botched abortions.
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Catherine said...
This Masonic led crisis for the pro life cause in Ireland [yes the media hacks sat on this story deliberately to time its rellease following on from the pernicious 'victory' in last weeks illegal referendum] indicates why precisely at this time Our Lady through the Icon of Czestochowa will be touring Ireland from 16-24 Nov just as ahe has done so miraculously these last two weeks in GB! Just watch the spiritual and supernatural reality that She will work in Ireland now this next week. This has to be in Providence.
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jaykay said...
James: thank you for highlighting these statistics. As Catherine says above, the media feeding-frenzy is in full and predictable swing. And when one thinks that it's only a year since the national broadcaster had a mega-humiliating climbdown from its perch of Olympian righteousness on account of a libel judgement against it for grossly irresponsible reporting (a la the BBC right now), the swift reversion to character is truly sickening, if not surprising to those of us who are all too familiar with their mindset.
At lunch today here in Dublin with 3 good friends - work colleagues for years - this subject inevitably came up, and inevitably, the views of my friends were straight from the Irish Times and its ilk (basically the Grauniad on a smaller scale). I wish I had had those figures you quote, but in the interests of peace I refrained from commenting. No: let's face it... I just didn't want to be cause "trouble". Heroic witness indeed :(
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R said...
Hi. A few comments on the statistics you quote (without getting into the specifics of this tragic case, or the wider moral issues about abortion).
It's not always easy to compare maternal mortality rates (or rates of anything else) between countries like that. There are probably other differences between countries, including in how they collect and report their data, which will contribute to differences between them. Also, it's difficult to make any firm conclusions based on one group of three countries and one group of two. Finally, there will be some statistical uncertainty in those estimates, which could mean that the differences are not as big they appear.
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Simon Platt said...
What's your point, er, 'R'? The WHO report doesn't give sufficient methodological detail that its correctness could be checked (to be fair, one wouldn't expect that, and they do cite further references that I haven't read), but they do give their estimated 95 percentile ranges of maternal mortality ratios. These make interesting reading and support James' point very strongly.
And Ireland, of course, comes out much better than the UK, much to the chagrin of pro-abortion campaigners in both countries.
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R said...
My only point was that data need context before drawing conclusions strongly. I wasn't trying to argue the conclusion either way (but can see it may have read like that - sorry if that was the case).
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Simon Platt said...
Righto.
'R', by the way, is the name of a software tool for statistical analysis which, I think, the WHO people used in their work. Did you know?
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R said...
I knew it was a statistical programme (didn't know it was used in that report though) - but that isn't why I use it.
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Fintan said...
I utterly condemn abortion but your statistics don't support your argument..... Ireland has a population of 4 million whilst Britain is over 60 million.
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Simon Platt said...
Er, the number of maternal deaths in the UK was 92, in Ireland, 4.
There is nothing fundamentally wrong with James' use of the statistics. It is simplified, certainly, but not unreasonably so and, also certainly, even-handed. It gives a fair reflection of the WHO data in respect of the countries concerned.
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Maidrin Ruadh said...
Just to clarify - Maternal Mortality Ratio is always worked out as Maternal Deaths per 100,000 births. Ireland doesn't have 100,000 births per year, more like 70,000 so the MMR for Ireland always works out slightly larger than the actual number of maternal deaths.
'R' above comments on the reliability or otherwise of statistics. It's probably fair to say that developed countries such as any of the EU countries keep good records of deaths and causes etc (in fact I think the report says as much) so figures from developed countries are probably accurate enough which may not be the case with less-developed countries
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Lynda said...
It is deaths per 100,000. In other words proportional figures. In fact, the number of maternal deaths in countries which practice abortion (the intentional killing of a child in his or her mother's womb) is likely to be significantly higher as many women who die in hospitals as a result of an abortion carried out elsewhere do not have the cause of their deaths (abortion) cited. The fact that an abortion caused their haemorrhage or whatever else is simply omitted, and it isn't included in the figures for maternal death. It has been reported that deaths of mothers from abortion of their babies in utero is about 20,000 per year in India.
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W Simpson said...
The masonic media are out in force on this. Al Jazeera is giving much time to discussion before detailed facts are known,- surprise surprise, they have been totally silent on women who have died in abortuaries, in UK and USA etc. The word HYPOCRISY springs to mind. Russia Today TV blew up the figures of the Dublin demo by pro aborts from 1000 to 10,000!, and referred to Ireland's 'archaic' abortion law; who needs lectures on morality in this area from Russia!!!! When a mother and her baby dies, it's tragic, where ever.But as you say, why the hyper attention to one incredibly rare case, UK has an abominable maternal mortality record, especially in particular hospitals.( PS the relatively higher figure given for Malta must surely be related to extrapolating the actual figure to per 100,000)
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New Friend said...
I have been pondering this for a few days for some of it is counter intuitive. There are obvious and well rehearsed differences between those who reject abortion on faith based grounds and those, like me, who can accept it in certain circumstances. To introduce all the statistics just reinforces the old adage "lies, damn lies and statistics", so can we leave them aside for a moment and examine this specific event. I had not been aware of this tragic death and still have not seen any media reports. Maybe I have missed them but perhaps the hype being claimed is not actually there.
What I would like to know is whether anyone truly believes that what happened to this lady was acceptable? She was told she was miscarrying and that her baby had no chance of survival. To describe a procedure which would make no difference to the baby but save the life of the mother as an "abortion" seems ridiculous to me. It just seems like pushing a point of principal against all common sense. Does anyone else agree with me or do you think what happened was the correct response?
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Nicolas Bellord said...
New Friend: The objection to abortion is founded upon Natural Law and the concept that the Right to Life is fundamental. It is not based on religious faith.
The problem with this case is that the facts are not clear and it is perhaps a waste of time to comment before the facts are clarified. The point is that until we know the facts, after due inquiry, we cannot know whether inducing the birth of a non-viable baby would have saved this lady. It seems she had blood-poisoning when the baby was still alive in her womb. Unless one could show that the baby was the cause of the blood poisoning then one cannot claim that aborting the baby would have saved her.
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Lynda said...
Abortion (the intentional killing of a baby in utero) has NOTHING to do with the Halappanavor case. The issue is medical treatment that is moral and legal, and we don't know yet if there was any medical negligence or if it was not possible to save her life I the circumstances. Ireland excels in obstetrics and maternal medicine, in no small part due to the pro-life ethos of the professions and the system, that ensures (generally) the best care for mothers and babies. The whole Media-driven, contrived frenzy was planned by the pro-abortion lobby and their people in the Irish Media, mainly the Irish Times, RTE and TV3. The international Media unquestioningly regurgitated the pro-abortion Irish Media lies as it suited their ideological bias. In fact, the Irish Times colluded with pro-abortion militants as to when and how they would "break" the story to allow the organising of pro-abortion rallies on the same day. These planned pro-abortion rallies were reported and spun as spontaneous protests in response to Mrs Halappanavar's death. The MO of the abortion industry and its propaganda wing is, and has been for decades, to conflate abortion ( the intentional killing of innocent and defenceless babies in utero) with medicine, where in some rare circumstances where the mother's life is endangered by a condition, can involve treatment that results in the unintended, undesired but unavoidable death of the baby. The latter is NOT abortion but medicine. Medicine is what is practised in Ireland, not abortion. In some circumstances, the baby cannot be saved. These deaths are unavoidable and everthing possible would be done to save the baby but sometimes it is just not possible. Babies in utero generally depend on their mothers living in order for their survival. One doesn't endanger the life of the mother in order to save the baby. If the mother's life is in danger, then so is the baby's. An International Symposium on Maternal Healthcare held recently in Dublin again confirmed the incontrovertible fact that abortion is never necessary to save the life of the mother. The Symposium issued the Dublin Declaration - it and all the lectures of the experts in maternal and foetal medicine are available online. Truth was the first thing to be rejected in this Media-led campaign for abortion. Ireland has been the target of the abortion industry and it's lobby for decades because it closes their lie that abortion is medical treatment, rather than the deliberate killing of innocent children - the opposite of medicine, and what medical professionals do.
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