The husband of a pregnant woman who died in an Irish hospital has said he has no doubt she would be alive if she had been allowed an abortion.
Savita Halappanavar's family said she asked several times for an abortion before she died.
Photograph courtesy of the Irish Times
Savita Halappanavar's family said she asked several times for her pregnancy to be terminated because she had severe back pain and was miscarrying.
Her husband told the BBC that it was refused because there was a foetal heartbeat.
Ms Halappanavar's death, on 28 October, is the subject of two investigations.
An autopsy carried out two days after her death found she had died from septicaemia, according to the Irish Times.
Ms Halappanavar, who was 31 and originally from India, was a dentist.
Praveen Halappanavar said staff at University Hospital Galway told them Ireland was "a Catholic country".
When asked by the BBC if he thought his wife would still be alive if the termination had been allowed, Mr Halappanavar said: "Of course, no doubt about it."
He said Savita had been "on top of the world" before experiencing difficulties.
"It was her first baby, first pregnancy and you know she was on top of the world basically," he said.
"She was so happy and everything was going well, she was so excited.
"On the Saturday night everything changed, she started experiencing back pain so we called into the hospital, the university hospital."
He said she continued to experience pain and asked a consultant if she could be induced.
"They said unfortunately she can't because it's a Catholic country," Mr Halappanavar said.
"Savita said to her she is not Catholic, she is Hindu, and why impose the law on her.
"But she said 'I'm sorry, unfortunately it's a Catholic country' and it's the law that they can't abort when the foetus is live."
The baby's heartbeat stopped on the Wednesday.
"I got a call at about half twelve on the Wednesday night that Savita's heart rate had really gone up and that they had moved her to ICU," Mr Halappanavar said.
"Things just kept on getting worse and on Friday they told me that she was critically ill."
He said some of Savita's organs stopped functioning and she died on Sunday 28 October.
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