BELAGAVI: “Thanks to the Irish voters, the soul of my daughter will finally rest in peace,” said 72-year-old Andanappa Yalagi, father of Savita Halappanavar, who had died of sepsis at a hospital in Galway on October 28, 2012, after being repeatedly denied medical permission to abort her 17-week foetus.
Speaking to The New Indian Express, Yalagi, struggling through his tears, said that he sorely missed his daughter. “We have at last got justice. No other daughter will henceforth undergo the pain and tragedy my daughter had to go through. No family will suffer like mine. Laws should benefit the people and not pose a threat to them. There is only one caste and religion which has to be considered seriously, and that is ‘life’. The change in the law was a must,” he said.
After the death of Savita, several people of Ireland had met Yalagi and his wife Akhmedevi. Yalagi recalled that they expressed that whatever had happened was totally wrong and the law that killed their daughter would be scrapped.
Yalagi said, “I have no words to express my gratitude to the people of Ireland at this memorable moment. Savita had a very long life to lead, which was cut short mercilessly due to the law. Savita’s death had hurt the entire Irish society, which she loved a lot.” The death of Savita, a dentist was a catalyst for repealing the eighth amendment, paving the way for a new legislation to allow the termination of pregnancies in the predominantly Catholic country.