Thousands marched in Dublin this past weekend and held a minute's silence after the death of an Indian dentist who was refused an abortion.
According to an article in the Huffington Post, 31-year-old Savita Halappanavar died of blood poisoning on 28 October, after being denied a termination in Ireland. Though not Catholic, she and her husband had lived in the country since 2008.
"Never again!" shouted throngs of (mostly) women who held a nighttime vigil outside of Prime Minister Enda Kenny's office.
At 17 weeks pregnant with her first child, Halappanavar was hospitalized and begged to have an abortion after she became critically ill. Doctors refused to perform the procedure because the fetus still had a heartbeat. They did so four days later, by which time Halappanavar's organs began to fail. She died three days later.
Her death has sparked an international outcry for Ireland's abortion laws to be revisited. Many claim her life could have been saved had doctors reacted sooner.
The constitution is confusing at best in a country where abortion is still illegal, except in cases where it threatens a woman's life. But the 1992 Supreme Court ruling relies on the discretion of the doctors involved in each individual case.
The legislation, many argue, is not only archaic but obtuse. "Twenty years is far too long," chanted protesters. "Ignoring women's rights is wrong!"
Though tantamount to murder in Ireland—and punishable by up to life in prison—abortions are obtained in England by an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 Irish women every year.
According to an article in the Guardian, Halappanavar's parents, who live in India, plan to take legal action against the University Hospital Galway where their only daughter died in agony.
"They are doctors but they were not humane," said her father, Mr Yalagi. "If they had been humane, they would have treated her. I do not want this to happen to other people. I am very angry."
Halappanavar's family has appealed to the Irish PM directly to revamp the existing legislation. Such an avoidable tragedy. Enda Kenny, are you listening?
Health Canada, the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (US CPSC) and the Kidco Inc. have jointly recalled the PeaPod Travel Beds and PeaPod Plus Travel Beds with the following model numbers:
Model Number Colour
In December 2011, a five-month-old baby in New York was found dead, with his face pressed against the side wall of the tent. The CPSC reports six further incidents of children entrapped or in "physical distress" within the tent, while Health Canada received three reports of infants "rolling over and getting their faces trapped between the mattress and the side of the product."
Customers are advised to immediately stop using the KidCo PeaPod, and contact KidCo for a free repair kit, available from December 2012. Customers are warned, even with the repair kit, that the tent is not to for use by children under one year old.
For further information, customers can contact KidCo toll-free at 1-855-847-8600 between 8:30 AM and 5 PM CT Monday through Friday or visit the company's website to receive the kit.
From January 2005 to present, approximately 220,000 of the travel beds were sold in the United States, and 30,000 in Canada.
According to an article in the UK Sun, the advent of vajazzles and Brazilians has meant a "five-fold increase in hospital admissions." Among the injuries reported are cuts and infections resulting from public grooming gone awry.
Ah, the good old days... In the '70s, the bushier a lady's southernmost coiffure the better. Today the trend toward, shall we say, minimalism is leaving many women with nasty grooming fails.
A survey from the University of California in San Francisco found that men still suffer from more "genitourinary" injuries but that women increasingly are, too—with a five-fold jump between 2002 and 2010.
“While women were overall less likely to endure genital injuries than their male counterparts, there was at least one exception: cuts and infections related to shaving or grooming pubic hair," said lead researcher, urologist Dr Benjamin Breyer. "The last few years have seen a dramatic increase in these types of injuries in women."
Spill it. Ever had a cosmetic injury down there? Do you happily suffer for neat-looking lady bits?
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