CLINICAL MIDWIFE MANAGER GIVES STATEMENT AT SAVITA INQUEST

Date Published: 10-Apr-2013

A senior midwife says she regrets telling Savita Halappanavar her pregnancy couldn’t be terminated because Ireland is a Catholic country.

Ann Maria Burke has been giving evidence at the inquest into the death of the 31 year old dentist from septicaemia following a miscarriage at Galway Univerity Hospital last October.

After her statement, she was questioned by the coroner on earlier witness claims that she had told Savita when discussing a termination that it can’t be done, it’s a Catholic country.

She responded ‘to be honest, i’m very upset about this. I did mention Catholic country. I didn’t mean it in a hurtful context. She talked about India. Hindu faith was mentioned. I explained it to her because I had been informed by the consultant that it wasn’t possible because of the foetal heartbeat and not being able to put in a suture’.

She concluded that she was trying to be as kind as she could. She said she shouldn’t have said it and it came out the wrong way.

The Coroner said that the comments had gone around the world, and he stressed that no public hospitals in Ireland follow religious persuasion or dogma, which Ms Burke readily accepted.