The Life Institute has discovered that abortion campaigners had been given prior knowledge of the Savita Halappanavar case, and that they planned to use it to proceed with a campaign to have abortion legalised in Ireland.
Spokeswoman for the Institute, Niamh Uí Bhriain, said that they had a copy of an email conversation which revealed that abortion advocates knew about the death of Ms Halappanavar, which she said they “most distastefully described as a ‘major news story’.”
The email, from the Irish Choice Network and dated November 11th, advised that “a major news story in relation to abortion access is going to break in the media early this coming week.”
It asked members to attend a meeting of the Irish Choice Network when they would have “more definite information around which we can make some collective decisions about how best to proceed.”
“Apologies if this is all a little mysterious, but the reason why I didn’t want to put specific details down by email will probably be clear tomorrow,” it continued.
The ICN supported an arranged protest calling for abortion outside the Dáil on Wednesday, which then became a vigil for Savita Halappanavar once the news of her tragic death was made known to the public. Calls for legalised abortion were made at the vigil.
Niamh Uí Bhriain of the Life Institute said that serious questions now needed to be asked.
“The tragic loss of Savita Halappanavar’s life should not be exploited by campaigners, and the media and the HSE now needs to ask why this information seems to have been given in advance to abortion advocates,” she asked.
“Was it given to them by the Irish Times who only broke the news days later, or by someone in the HSE? And if so, why?” she asked.
“As we await the investigation into what happened in Galway University Hospital, we need to know if this private patient information was given to campaigners for legalised abortion in Ireland. And the very obvious and wholly distasteful desire of abortion advocates to use this story to further their own agenda has now been exposed by this email,” said Ms Uí Bhriain.
LifeNews Note: Youth Defence is a pro-life group based in Ireland.
