Dublin City Councillors Vote To Rename Street In Honour Of Savita Halappanavar

Dublin City Councillors have voted in favour at last night's DCC meeting of naming a street in honour of Savita Halappanavar.

The Journal report that the vote was passed by 35 to 40 with four abstentions, with Solidarity-PBP councillor Tina MacVeigh putting forward the proposal, which reads:

To honour the memory of Savita Halappanavar, who tragically lost her life as a consequence of the Irish State’s barbaric and antiquated attitudes to women’s reproductive rights, that a street in our capital city be named in her memory.

McVeigh also said that while “Savita’s life had dignity and meaning, her death had neither”.

“Naming a street in her memory,” she added, “would be a gesture not only to honour her life but would also make a strong statement about the legacy of how women in Ireland have been treated. It is also a gesture that will mean a great deal to her parents and family in India.”

Savita was 17 weeks pregnant when she was admitted to Galwya University Hospital on 21st October 2012, and died one week later after having a miscarriage and going into septic shock due to the presence of E coli in her bloodstream.

An inquest into her death heard that Savita asked for her pregnancy to be terminated several times while in hospital, but was refused because a foetal heartbeat was detected and abortion could not be carried out under Irish law.

It's unlikely, however, that the naming of a Dublin street in her honour will go ahead any time soon as guidelines state nominations must have died "at least 20 years previously."