Londoners rally outside embassy over dentist death

Savita Halappanavar, a 31-year-old dentist, was 17 weeks pregnant when she died on October 28 after suffering a miscarriage and septicaemia.

The London rally was organised to coincide with one in Dublin, where several hundred people demonstrated outside Ireland's parliament.

It followed an allegation by Ms Halappanavar's husband Praveen that doctors had repeatedly refused his wife's requests for an abortion as the foetus's heart was still beating and Ireland is "a Catholic country."

Both Britain and Ireland's medical associations have shied away from directly commenting on Ms Halappanavar's death, citing ongoing inquiries.

Ireland's health service said today that it had commissioned an independent inquiry into the matter.

Abortion Rights vice-chairwoman Kate Smurthwaite told the Morning Star that doctors should have carried out Ms Halappanavar's wishes immediately - infection or not.

She said the conversation around abortion was framed as a debate with equally valid arguments.

But real situations like Ms Halappanavar's showed that there was no room for debate, she said.

"The only person in the world who should make that decision is the person having that operation - that's how we treat any other medical procedure.

"As soon as religions are running hospitals, we've gone wrong."

Mrs Smurthwaite said that anti-abortion groups appeared to be "lying low."

But she hoped public anger would check recent talk among Tory Cabinet ministers of reducing the 24-week limit on abortions, which she said was not backed up by medical evidence.

Activists in Ireland have planned more demonstrations for Saturday, including a march through Dublin and a candlelit vigil outside the country's parliament.