European Tribune - Would an abortion have saved Savita Halappanavar?

It might also have been possible to accelerate the process by inducing an earlier delivery.

I don't know if this was considered, and if so why that option was rejected. Presumably her medical records will shed some light on this. Given that miscarriage is basically premature childbirth triggered if there is some malfunction - I'm not sure if it is known precisely why or how - but which is a naturally occurring end to many pregnancies, perhaps the medical team felt - at the time - there was no need to accelerate the process, or that it was proceeding normally and naturally and with no excessive risk to the mother.

I share your view that this is a somewhat far fetched scenario given that, reportedly, her membrane had ruptured, and that this posed a significant risk of infection. I do know that many successful child-births can take a long time and that induction is often used to accelerate the process, so the suspicion has to be that this was not done here because it was known the foetus was unviable and so that an induction at that time could be construed as an abortion.

However the Catholic Church has often used the somewhat Jesuitical distinction between a treatment intended directly to abort a foetus, and a treatment required by the mother and which has the "side-effect" of aborting the foetus, and so it seems to me the medical team where not "theologically" precluded from pursuing this option. However the failure of the Irish Parliament to legislate to provide greater clarity as to what is and is not legally allowed under the current Constitution may have contributed to uncertainty and procrastination on their part.  

Presumably the inquiry team will question them precisely on this point.

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