Reprinted from dailykos.com by Leslie Salzillo
About Ten Thousand People Attended A Rally In Dublin In Memory Of Savita Halappanavar
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Based on the belief that he had an obligation to give a fetus a chance for life, a judge inWashington, D.C., ordered a critically ill 27-year-old woman who was 26 weeks pregnant to undergo a cesarean section, which he understood might kill her. Neither the woman nor her baby survived.
One of the biggest fears many women have had leading up to the 2014 Midterm Elections, and after, was the fear of losing the Senate and ultimately losing more reproductive rights. In actuality, Obama's vetoing power will keep Republicans in Congress from having as much power as those lawmakers would like. And ironically, the GOP will get a bitter taste of their own obstruction.
What many activists, including myself, failed to focus on while writing blogs, making memes, and creating FB pages, was how much more damage the GOP lawmakers can, and will, do to the rights of women - on a state level.
This NY Times piece stunningly exposes the legal injustices carried out against women in different states (The Washington DC case is in the introduction). The authors, Lynn M. Paltro and Jeanne Flavin, conducted additional research and they point out these are not isolated cases.
In Iowa, a pregnant woman who fell down a flight of stairs was reported to the police after seeking help at a hospital. She was arrested for "attempted fetal homicide."In Utah, a woman gave birth to twins; one was stillborn. Health care providers believed that the stillbirth was the result of the woman's decision to delay having a cesarean. She was arrested on charges of fetal homicide.