On October 21, 2012, a woman named Savita Halappanavar went to the hospital in Ireland because of back pain that had lasted for 12 hours. At 17 weeks pregnant, doctors had to deliver devastating news to her: she was miscarrying. Her pregnancy was, inevitably, not going to be viable.
The next day, her water broke, but her body didn't go into labor and expel the fetus on its own. Her family repeatedly asked for her to be induced, for the pregnancy to be terminated, but the doctors said they couldn't because there was still a fetal heartbeat — and in Ireland, at the time, abortion was prohibited, even in a situation like Halappanavar's, where the fetus was not going to be viable.
