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Irish Times
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
From Savita Halappanavar to Anne Bonny: Damning indictment of the treatment of women through the ages shows its always been this way
At first glance, the two women who drive the narrative of a new opera by Kamala Sankaram and Paul Muldoon seem an unlikely pairing. Custom of the Coast weaves together the stories of Savita Halappanavar , the young Indian woman who became a symbol of this country's pro–choice movement after she died in a Galway hospital in 2012 and Cork-born pirate Anne Bonny , a swashbuckling icon from the 18th century, who disguised her gender by wearing men's clothes. Indian-American composer Sankaram and Pulitzer Prize winning poet Muldoon are on a video call from United States, where they are both based, to discuss their new work. Muldoon, who wrote the libretto, has long been fascinated by pirates. He rereads Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson every year. 'It's one of the greatest pieces of writing in English in its representation of the pirate world,' he says. READ MORE But how did Muldoon first come to the idea that the lives of these two women from such different times and backgrounds might work as an interwoven story? 'It's one of those strange things that I can't quite tell you …,' he says of the origins of the libretto. 'The paradoxical relationship between the two stories came to me in, I think, almost a kind of a dream, as many things do. So I can't really tell you which came first. I think they arrived together.' Muldoon says that like many people he was 'very troubled' when the news broke of 31-year-old Halapannavar's death . 'We have so much to be proud of in Ireland with our two women presidents, our poet President and indeed our gay, Indian taoiseach. This [Savita's death] was a moment where we seemed to be going backward rather than forward. It was a critical moment for many of us ...' Halappanavar's story is shamefully familiar to most of us. Originally from the Indian state of Karnataka, the dentist moved to Galway in 2008 to be with her husband Praveen, a manufacturing engineer. She was 17 weeks pregnant in October 2012 when, complaining of back pain, she was admitted to University Hospital Galway . While there she was told she was having a miscarriage. She and Praveen as a result made repeated requests for an abortion, which were denied on legal grounds. In the early hours of October 28th, Savita died from severe sepsis. Paul Muldoon: 'The main ambition of the piece is actually to be itself'. Photograph: Simone Padavani An investigation by the HSE subsequently found that there was a 'lack of recognition of the gravity of the situation and of the increasing risk to the mother which led to passive approaches and delays in aggressive treatment'. Peter Boylan, former master of the National Maternity Hospital , has said 'the real problem was the inability to terminate the pregnancy prior to Ms Halappanavar developing a real and substantial risk of death. By that time it was, effectively, too late to save her life.' Hallapanavar's tragic death ignited a social movement across Ireland. There were candlelit vigils held in her memory and national protests that influenced the government's introduction of the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill. Her death galvanised a generation of pro-choice campaigners and in June 2018, 66 per cent of the country voted to repeal the 8th Amendment, which had effectively outlawed abortion in Ireland. Afterwards, campaigners gathered at the mural of Savita in Dublin's city centre to mark the historic victory for women's rights that will be forever linked to the young Indian woman. The opera, which is directed by Alan Gilsenan and will be premiered next month at the Kilkenny Arts Festival, gives voice to both Halappanavar and Bonny in powerful narratives that run alongside each other, until they collide in surprising and unexpected ways. The 'paradoxical' link that Muldoon referred to between the women is a fascinating one. In Custom of the Coast – the term for the pirate code that governed seafaring activity – Muldoon contrasts the fact that one of the women, Halappanavar, died because she was pregnant while the other woman, Bonny, who had been sentenced to death for piracy, was granted a stay of execution after she 'pleaded the belly'. The phrase meant she was pregnant and her life should be spared. In fact, Bonny was only faking pregnancy in order to avoid execution. The opera also follows another female pirate in men's clothing, Mary Read, who was actually pregnant, and also 'pleaded the belly' but later died in childbirth. With Halappanavar's story running alongside all of this, the opera is a damning indictment of the treatment of women through the ages. For her part, Sankaram, who often bases her work on women's rights issues, was very much aware of Savita Halappanavar. Around the time of her death, she had been creating a chamber opera called Thumbprint based on the story of Pakistani woman Mukhtar Mai, who was gang-raped as retribution for a crime her brother had committed. Kamala Sankaram says Custom of the Coast asks questions about 'a women's right to control over their bodies' Mai went on to sue her attackers and became the first woman in Pakistan to successfully prosecute a so-called honour crime. 'Savita's story was very much in the air at the time,' Sankaram says. 'Also, here in the United States while we, until recently, had constitutional protections that were supposed to preserve your right to choose an abortion, those rights were already being eroded in many places, particularly in red states. And we've seen what has happened since then.' Since Roe v Wade was reversed three years ago, access to abortion across the United States has been dramatically reduced with 12 states now operating complete bans and others imposing restrictions based on gestational limits. Muldoon came to her with the opera proposal a few months after Roe v Wade had been struck down in the United States. 'It seemed very important because even though the opera is very situated in Ireland, the themes are universal.' Sankaram said although she is not Irish, she was watching for the outcome of the Repeal campaign. 'There have always been these laws around what women can and cannot do with their own bodies. Sadly, we in United States are now very much behind where you are in terms of our rights, which is just so depressing.' Custom of the Coast 'asks questions about a women's right to control over their bodies, how that has changed and how it has stayed the same over time ...' 'I think placing these women next to each other really highlights that it's always been this way,' she continues. 'In one case, Anne Bonny was able to use pregnancy to save her own life but Mary Read, who also 'pleaded the belly', died. It's important that it's not just the parallel between Anne Bonny and Savita Halappanavar, it's between Mary Read, Anne Bonny and Savita Halappanavar. 'The three of them together. That's what is interesting about the way this piece works. It's not a slice of realistic opera libretto, it's much more evocative. It's everything happening at once. And you can sort of see how the threads extend through time from Anne and Mary to Savita, and how that might also have an interaction with where we are now.' An engraving from 1878 showing Mary Read and her comrade Anne Bonny who were convicted of piracy during the early 18th century. Photograph: Getty Images The work also chimed with her own pirate obsession. When Muldoon asked if she knew about Bonny, her response was 'of course'. Sankaram's Indian heritage also came into play as she composed the piece. 'Savita was from Bengaluru, which is where part of my family lives. So there is something about what it means to be an immigrant in a new country. And what it means to choose to assimilate or not assimilate, and how you're going to do that, which is part of her story. So it felt resonant for all of those reasons.' Interestingly, a few years ago Muldoon, who was born in Portadown, Co Armagh , found some distant Indian heritage of his own. 'I discovered that I actually am part Indian. I'm not suggesting, by the way, that this gives me any particular insight. I don't quite believe in that. But it is the case that one of my great-grandparents, from what I could make out from the DNA information, was of Punjabi heritage.' The historical connections between both countries are nodded to in the piece which mentions the green, white and orange of both flags. 'The Indian movement towards independence was influenced by the Irish movement, so much so that the Indian revolution was staged at Easter,' says Muldoon. Sankaram's opera score is a fusion of traditional Irish and Indian classical music, while structurally Muldoon's libretto is inspired by everything from sea shanties to the Hindi ghazal. The main roles are sung by soprano Anchal Dhir and mezzo-soprano Michelle O'Rourke. It might well be the only opera to include a starring role for the accordion, played by renowned musician Danny O'Mahony. [ Irish women warriors: from Granuaile to Anne Bonny and Countess Markievicz Opens in new window ] Sankaram says, given the tragic subject matter, she wanted to create 'something that was loving and respectful and honest, to show you are honouring that person and uplifting their story'. She drew from the strong cultural traditions in both Ireland and India. 'For me, to come in as someone who isn't Irish, didn't feel quite honest. A lot of it is figuring out how to bring in Irish traditional music and let it be what it is, without my imposing myself on it, I wanted to sort of make a bed for it to exist'. Custom of the Coast is the story with the reproductive lives of three women at its heart. In an era where the question of who gets to tell certain stories is forensically discussed, did Muldoon question whether he was the right person to create this work? 'It's a perfectly reasonable question but I feel it would be a sad day if men were not allowed to write about women, and women were not allowed to write about men ... the two main ideas which I would be very conscious of as I'm writing are ignorance and humility. For me those are absolute sine qua nons, without them nothing really of interest happens. It would be a poor, poor world I think where the imagination is not given free rein. 'And isn't it vital that men do get involved and become troubled and moved by these issues? I think it is.' 'The story had to be told and Paul was the person who came to me with the story,' Sankaram says. 'At the end of the day respect and honour are the most important things. Are you telling the story because you think it's going to make you money? Are you looking for fame? Obviously that's not the case here ... I think it's complex, but as long as the work is approached with love and care, then that's really the bottom line for me.' [ Scannal: Savita review – Heartbreaking chronicle of the medieval essence at heart of Irish healthcare system Opens in new window ] The Catholic Church's dominance over women's lives in Ireland is brought into sharp relief by the opera's venue, St Canice's Cathedral. In the libretto, Muldoon imagines the everyday lives of Hallapanavar and Bonny bringing both women vibrantly to life. At one point, again emphasising the church's influence, there is a line about Halappanavar taking a selfie outside a Magdalene Laundry in Galway: 'I'll never forget the selfie I took outside the old Magdalene laundry on Forster Street. To think that I'd given up the so-called third world for a country famous for bards and biotech only to find the Papal flag unfurled' I ask Muldoon whether this selfie scene was inspired by reports of Halappanavar's life in Galway, or whether he felt free to imagine elements of her inner and outer world. 'Regarding the selfie, I don't remember if that actually happened quite honestly, I don't remember if I made that up. There's always an element of fictionalisation ... it's inevitable that there would be some kind of invention about the piece. Let's face it, at the core of the work is the notion that Bonny and Halappanavar are in some way connected and perhaps engaged in dialogue. Well, that just did not happen, but for the purposes of this piece it happens and I hope we can get deeper insight into both stories from them being connected in that way.' Returning to his dream that inspired the opera, he says 'the ideal is that we are visited by forces beyond us, be it the language, be it a melody. Without sounding too corny or pretentious, there's really no accounting for much of what happens in the business of art-making, you know ... what I find most joyful about it is being surprised, having no idea what's going to happen and seeing what happens and hoping that something interesting happens. That's what it's all about.' Muldoon did not get in touch with the Halappanavar family while writing the libretto, although the director Alan Gilsenan has been in communication with them more recently. Do the creators think the Halappanavar family might travel to Ireland to see the opera? Sankaram says they would be warmly welcomed. The question also makes her think back to her work with rape survivor Mukthar Mai, who did come to see a live performance of the piece based on her ordeal. Mukhtar Mai became a symbol of hope for oppressed women. Photograph: Robert Nickelsberg/ Getty Images 'What she said afterwards was that it was difficult for her to see those experiences reenacted on stage. But then when the lights came on and there were people standing and clapping around her, she realised there had been all of these people with her the whole time.' Muldoon says it would be 'fabulous' if the Halappanavar family felt able to come, that the opera is a 'loving and honouring' portrayal of her. 'But it could be quite painful, you never know how people are going to be able to deal with something like that'. What do they hope audiences will take from the work? 'I hope it's a reminder for people that these rights are fragile. In the United States, we felt comfortable, and then that right was taken away,' says Sankaram. 'I hope it's also inspiring for people who hear it to know that change can be affected, but that it also has to be protected and that it's very much an ongoing thing.' She hopes Custom of the Coast travels to the United States 'because we could use that message here as well'. Muldoon agrees with Sankaram, saying 'all art is political whether we want to believe it or not'. But he also strikes a note of caution regarding the danger of sermonising through opera or other artforms. 'I didn't set out to make a particular point ... I agree with John Keats, who reminded us that we have difficulties with art that has designs on us, just as we have difficulty with people who have designs on us. 'When you can see people want to make you go in a particular direction, we actually don't like that, we shy away from it. And I think the same is true of art. I hope it will raise issues that are important in society but I would say the main ambition of this piece is actually to be itself and allow a space in which the ideas may resonate.' Custom of the Coast is at St Canice's Cathedral in Kilkenny on August 8th.
Yahoo
20-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
We're pro-choice Floridians — and we trust David Jolly to defend our rights
We're pro-choice Floridians — and we trust David Jolly to defend our rights | Opinion We are Floridians who are actively committed to securing reproductive rights in Florida, and we are enthusiastically supporting David Jolly for governor. He strongly believes: 'Reproductive health care decisions should be made between women and their doctors, not politicians.' He wants to bring back the protections of Roe v. Wade, as do the over 57% of Florida voters who voted for Amendment 4 last November. David Jolly told us: 'I voted for Amendment 4. As governor, I would work to enact Amendment 4 into law. I support Roe. I am pro-choice. And as your governor I would veto any legislation that would restrict reproductive healthcare in the state of Florida.' Roe is the United States Supreme Court case that originally established the right to an abortion and was overruled by a 2023 Supreme Court decision. Jolly was not always a supporter of abortion rights. When he was in Congress many years ago, he did support anti-abortion positions. But since then, he has changed his mind. After all, he was raised in a culture that deplored abortion. However, when faced with the tangible and tragic harms resulting from restrictive abortion policies, his view changed. Informed by empathy, ethical considerations and his views on the appropriate role of government, he is now solidly pro-choice. What? A politician who changes his mind to do the right thing? Is that not what we all want? Well, it certainly is what we want. Jolly's positions track exactly the language of Amendment 4: 'No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient's health, as determined by the patient's healthcare provider.' That language is the same codification of Roe v. Wade that Jolly supports. We find it admirable that Jolly is someone who was willing to change his mind after being confronted with the realities of the anti-abortion movement and its devastating impact on those who need abortions but cannot get them. None of us would be supporting him today unless he had realized his past stance on reproductive choice was wrong. Jolly pledges that he will govern according to his values, which are based on 'love, kindness, respect and dignity.' He says that there are three basic principles that govern his decisions: ▪ Florida's economy should work for everyone in the state. ▪ Florida's laws and policies should apply equally to all. ▪ The personal freedoms of all Floridians must be protected. Those values and principles point only to support for reproductive rights. We trust David Jolly on reproductive rights. But this is not a one-issue race. We also support his positions on other issues that he and we consider critical to Florida: addressing the affordability of housing, property insurance and health care, strengthening and improving public education and allowing our public universities to thrive without government interference. If we cannot accept that politicians can change their minds when they realize they were wrong, we are in for governance that none of us want. Jolly is a person who will live and govern by the same values and principles we all support. That's why dedicated pro-choice women leaders across Miami-Dade like Maribel Balbin, Cindy Lerner and Jennifer Stearns Buttrick are joining reproductive freedom champions throughout our state like Mona Reis, Susan Windmiller, former member of Congress Gwen Graham and former Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Barbara Pariente in saying: We trust David Jolly on reproductive rights. Ellen Freidin is a lawyer and sponsor of Florida's Constitutional Equal Protection Clause and leader of the Fair Districts Florida movement. Jane Moscowitz is a former federal prosecutor. Donna Shalala is a former member of Congress and former president of the University of Miami. Barbara Zdravecky is the retired CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida. Solve the daily Crossword
CBS News
26-06-2025
- Health
- CBS News
Florida Rep. Kat Cammack says her office was evacuated due to death threats
Rep. Kat Cammack said late Wednesday her offices were evacuated due to "imminent death threats" against her and her family. The Florida Republican said on X the threats began after a recent Wall Street Journal story about her experience with an ectopic pregnancy last year. She told the paper that emergency room doctors were hesitant to treat the life-threatening complication because they were worried about running afoul of Florida's strict six-week abortion ban — an incident she blamed on "fearmongering" by opponents of the state law. "Since then, we've [received] thousands of hate-filled messages and dozens of credible threats from pro-abortion activists, which law enforcement is actively investigating," Cammack wrote in her post, which also included screenshots of several social media comments. Cammack added on X, "To those spreading misinformation: I did not vote for Florida's heartbeat law; I serve in the U.S. House of Representatives, not the Florida Legislature." Cammack's post did not specify which congressional offices were evacuated. CBS News has reached out to her office and the U.S. Capitol Police for more details. Concerns about medical treatment for pregnancy complications — including ectopic pregnancies — have spiked since 2022, when the reversal of Roe v. Wade led dozens of states to ban or heavily restrict abortion. State-level abortion bans generally allow for exceptions when a mother's life is at risk. And officials in Florida and other states say terminating an ectopic pregnancy — a condition in which an embryo implants outside the uterus — is not considered an abortion. But critics argue confusion about those exceptions has put patients at risk, as medical providers may be wary of taking action that could later be found to violate their state's abortion ban. Florida state regulators issued a notice last year that said "abortion is permissible at any stage of pregnancy in Florida to save the life and health of the mother," including for women with ectopic pregnancies. Meanwhile, threats against members of Congress, judges, prosecutors and other public officials have grown in recent years, federal law enforcement agencies say. The Capitol Police said it investigated 9,474 "concerning statements and direct threats" last year against lawmakers, their families and their staff.
The Independent
21-06-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
We still need to have difficult conversations about abortion
My mother remembers that, when she was a child, a friendly woman, probably in her thirties, lived next door. One day, that woman was gone. Another neighbour had helped her carry out a 'backstreet abortion' – in the days when terminating a pregnancy was illegal but coathangers were not – and she'd bled to death in her own home. I don't even know her name. But I thought of that poor woman this week when MPs voted overwhelmingly to stop women in England and Wales being prosecuted for ending a pregnancy outside the law – for instance, after 24 weeks. Thank goodness, I thought, we live in a nation where women no longer have to risk death or imprisonment in desperate situations. But if there's one thing I've learnt from a decade of writing about abortion – speaking to women, joining pro-choice marches and questioning anti-abortion protesters holding rosary beads and praying outside clinics – it's this. Whichever side you're on (and it's not always black or white), it's easier to make your case if you've engaged with those who don't agree with you. In this deeply emotive debate, talking it out is not only helpful but essential. So, on this heatwave weekend, if you're going to a family gathering or having barbecue with friends, and the topic comes up? Don't shy away from it. It's why I listened this week as LBC presenter Shelagh Fogarty told listeners of her lunchtime radio show: 'I am horrified by what happened in the Commons yesterday… I feel sad and deeply worried.' I expect many of us will have a woman in our lives who feels this way about Tuesday's vote, which saw MPs give abortion law its biggest overhaul in 50 years. No longer will women in England and Wales be prosecuted using an 1861 law designed for Victorian backstreet abortionists. Women will no longer be pulled from their hospital beds following a miscarriage and investigated on suspicion of causing their own late abortion (yes, this happened, and recently). But I also know that not everyone feels the same way, even my fellow women. You might know one of them – your mum, grandmother or aunt; a friend, sister or colleague. We need to be able to have these conversations with each other and not avoid it out of shame or fear (or how ever do we hope to have them with men?) So here's your basic toolkit for talking to a woman in your life who feels worried about what decriminalisation means. First, don't approach them with a 'you're so ignorant' stance – tempting though it might be – especially an older woman. They fought many of these battles first, or have had decades to think about them. Softly, softly. It's also best to shelve any arguments over when a clump of cells becomes a foetus or becomes a baby – if you disagree on that straight away, it's probably game over. Fogarty mentioned 'Sarah', who called her show to share how she'd experienced mental health issues at 35 weeks pregnant and felt the only way out was an abortion. It had helped Fogarty understand, she said, how 'demanding, exacting and desperate a pregnancy can be for some women'. That's what you're going for: compassion and an appreciation that no woman who procures her own abortion, late into a pregnancy, is doing so just because they can. It's not 'abortion on demand'. These women – and there are very few, around 0.1 per cent of all abortions each year – are vulnerable, backed into a corner, sometimes being coerced. They need help, not prison. So talk about Nicola Packer, who took abortion medication thinking she was less than 10 weeks pregnant and, when she went to hospital and discovered she was actually 26 weeks, was thrown in the back of a police van. She was finally cleared last month after a criminal trial. Or Carla Foster, who was jailed in 2023 after taking abortion pills between 32 and 34 weeks pregnant and at a time of serious distress. She was sentenced to 28 months and denied access to her other children, one of whom has special needs. She was freed after a public outcry, but not cleared. It's hard to see how locking these women up does anything useful. Deter others? The tiny number who are so very desperate enough to do this won't be deterred, though they may be put off from seeking medical care. And it's heartbreaking to think of women suffering the tragedy of miscarriage or stillbirth being treated with suspicion, not sympathy. 'Even if you're opposed to abortion, you can understand why the law shouldn't be used in that way,' says Katherine O'Brien from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service. Next: demystify. I've seen one too many social media posts saying 'abortion is now decriminalised in the UK up to the day of birth'. Except, it isn't. The Abortion Act 1967 requires a termination to be approved by two doctors and it can be performed until 24 weeks (10 weeks for pills by post), unless there are exceptional circumstances such as the woman's life being at risk. That still stands. A doctor who performs an abortion after 24 weeks, without there being exceptional circumstances, can be prosecuted. Now, a woman who ends her own pregnancy after 24 weeks, or without two-doctor approval, cannot. Stay calm. But if they can't? If language like 'murderers' or 'evil' comes up? Take a moment or agree to continue the conversation another time. You can't pretend the other side doesn't exist, but you can be safe in the knowledge that you're on the right side of history.
Daily Mail
18-06-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Activists and MPs vow to fight decriminalisation of abortion after landmark change passed with just 45 minutes of debate
MPs and campaigners have vowed to fight abortion decriminalisation in the House of Lords after a policing bill was 'hijacked' to push through landmark reforms with limited scrutiny. On Tuesday MPs voted for the biggest change to abortion law for half a century, meaning women will no longer be prosecuted for aborting their baby for any reason and at any stage up to birth. This was introduced as an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill - which is concerned with police powers and anti-social behaviour - meaning MPs had less than two hours to debate the most consequential change since the 1967 Abortion Act. Tuesday night was the first time this amendment was debated in the Commons and campaigners claim that pro-choice MPs 'hijacked' the Crime Bill to force through the change and limit scrutiny. Had it been introduced as a standalone Government Bill this would have guaranteed hours of debate and scrutiny, with MPs given the opportunity to amend the legislation to add safeguards. Tory MP Jerome Mayhew raised a point of order following the debate, telling the Commons: 'We have made a major change to the abortion law, and that was on the basis of no evidence session, no committee stage scrutiny, [and] just 46 minutes of backbench debate.' And Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said in a letter to constituents ahead of Tuesday's vote that she was 'troubled' by the amendment being introduced to the Crime and Policing Bill 'meaning there will be less time for debate'. The Bill still has further stages to go through in Parliament and changes could be made to the measures in the House of Lords. Last night Catherine Robinson, of pro-life group Right to Life UK, said that campaigners 'will be fighting this amendment at every stage in the Lords'. 'Pro-abortion MPs hijacked a Government Bill to force through a radical and far-reaching change to our abortion laws,' she added. 'There has been no public consultation, no evidence sessions, no detailed scrutiny at Committee Stage - instead, the largest change to abortion law since the Abortion Act was introduced in 1967 had just over forty-five minutes of backbench debate, then a ministerial closing speech in which the minister refused to take any interventions.' Tory MP Andrew Rosindell described the way in which abortion decriminalisation was brought before the House as 'truly shocking'. He said: 'These are hugely consequential changes to our abortion laws that will put many vulnerable women and viable babies at grave risk. The fact that these extreme changes were subject to such a rushed debate is lamentable. 'Recent polling makes clear that the vast majority of the public oppose these inhumane changes to our abortion law, and it's hardly surprising there has been such a strong backlash.' Alithea Williams, from anti-abortion campaign group the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), said: 'Shoehorning abortion decriminalisation into the Crime and Policing Bill, which has been described as 'Christmas treeing', has denied considered and mature reflection of this change, fixing a problem that simply doesn't exist.' Immediately after the vote, Ms Williams said: 'We call on the Lords to throw this undemocratic, barbaric proposal out when it reaches them. We will never accept a law that puts women in danger and removes all rights from unborn babies.'
