Ireland’s tough abortion laws came under fire yesterday following the death of an Indian woman who was allegedly refused a termination after doctors told her it was a Catholic country.

Prime Minister Enda Kenny told lawmakers he was awaiting the results of two investigations of the death of Savita Halappanavar, who is originally from India, at University Hospital Galway in western Ireland.

Abortion is illegal in Roman Catholic-dominated Ireland except when it is necessary to save the life of the mother.

Halappanavar, who was 17 weeks pregnant, repeatedly asked the hospital to terminate her pregnancy because she had severe back pain and was miscarrying, her family said.

But staff had told the 31-year-old dentist, a Hindu, that she could not have an abortion because Ireland was a Catholic country and the foetus was still alive, her husband Praveen told the Irish Times.

“Savita was really in agony. She was very upset, but she accepted she was losing the baby,” he told the newspaper by telephone from the Karnataka region of southern India.

“When the consultant came on the ward rounds on Monday morning Savita asked if they could not save the baby could they induce to end the pregnancy.

“The consultant said, ‘As long as there is a foetal heartbeat we can’t do anything.’

“Again on Tuesday morning, the ward rounds and the same discussion. The consultant said it was the law, that this is a Catholic country. Savita said: ‘I am neither Irish nor Catholic’ but they said there was nothing they could do.”

She died of septicaemia, or blood poisoning, on October 28, a week after she was admitted. The foetus had been removed on October 23 after its heartbeat stopped.

The hospital said in a statement that it had ordered a review into Savita Halappanavar’s death but it had not yet started as it was waiting to consult with the Halappanavar family, who are in India for her funeral.

Kenny said the health minister had asked for a report on the circumstances surrounding Halappanavar’s death, while investigations had been launched by the hospital and by Ireland’s Health Service Executive.