Valentina Milluzzo

Another Savita Halappanavar, this time in Italy.

Italian prosecutors have begun an inquiry into the death after a miscarriage of a woman of 32 who was pregnant with twins.

The family of Valentina Milluzzo said the doctor treating her refused to abort the foetuses because he was a “conscientious objector” to abortion.

The hospital involved has categorically rejected the family’s claims.

Milluzzo was admitted to Cannizzaro hospital in the Sicilian city of Catania on 29 September after suffering complications and going into premature labour in her 19th week of pregnancy. She had had fertility treatment at another health centre.

She was in a stable condition in hospital for more than a fortnight but on 15 October her blood pressure and temperature dropped and her condition worsened.

According to the family’s lawyer, one of the foetuses was suffering breathing problems. The lawyer alleges that the gynaecologist refused to abort the foetuses in order to save the mother and said: “As long as it’s alive, I will not intervene.”

No action was taken while the troubled foetus was still alive and hours later both had died, the lawyer said.

Overnight, the mother’s condition deteriorated and she contracted an infection. On 16 October she was transferred to intensive care, where she died.

Apparently all the doctors in that hospital refuse to perform abortions.

A senior doctor at the hospital, Paolo Scollo, told the Corriere website that all the doctors in his department were “objectors”, and external doctors were called in when necessary. “However, in this case we’re talking about a spontaneous miscarriage, no external help was needed. So we do not think the doctor was negligent,” he said.

But sometimes a miscarriage does need external help – as in the case of Savita Halappanavar, for instance.

70% of doctors in Italy refuse to perform abortions.

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