Italian woman who died following miscarriage ‘was refused life-saving abortion’
Prosecutors in Italy are investigating the death of a 32-year-old woman who was allegedly refused an abortion which could have saved her life.
Valentina Milluzzo’s family claims the doctor treating her did not terminate her pregnancy when she began suffering severe complications because he was a “conscientious objector” to abortion. She died following a miscarriage. The hospital involved has categorically rejected the allegation.
Ms Milluzzo was pregnant with twins when she went into premature labour at 19 weeks. She was admitted to Cannizzaro hospital in Catania on the Italian island of Sicily on 29 September, the BBC reported.
Ms Milluzzo, who worked at a global banking and financial services company, was in a stable condition in hospital for more than a fortnight, but on 15 October her blood pressure and temperature dropped and her condition worsened. According to a lawyer acting on behalf of the family, one of the foetuses was struggling to breathe.
The lawyer has alleged Ms Milluzzo’s gynaecologist refused to abort the foetuses to save the mother and said: “As long as it’s alive, I will not intervene.” No action was taken while the foetus was still alive. Hours later both foetuses had died, the lawyer said. Ms Milluzzo’s condition deteriorated rapidly overnight and she contracted an infection. On 16 October she was transferred to intensive care, where she died.
Angelo Pellicano, the head of the Cannizzaro hospital, said the lawyer was wrong. “There was no conscientious objection on behalf of the doctor that intervened in this case because there was no voluntary termination of the pregnancy, but [the miscarriage] was forced by the grave circumstances,” he told the Ansa news agency. “I rule out that a doctor could have told the family what they say he told them.”
Sources reportedly told Ansa the doctor had not been registered as a “conscientious objector”.
Ms Milluzzo’s burial has been postponed while a post-mortem investigation is carried out and there are unconfirmed reports some of the hospital’s medical staff may be investigated.
A senior doctor at the hospital, Paolo Scollo, told the Corriere website all the doctors in his department were “objectors”, and external doctors were called in when necessary. “However, in this case we’re talking about a spontaneous miscarriage, no external help was needed. So we do not think the doctor was negligent,” he said.
In 2013, 70 per cent of Italian gynaecologists refused to carry out abortions, according to Italian government figures. In southern Italy the proportion was even higher and in Sicily it was 87.6 per cent.
Despite being a Catholic country, Italy legalised abortion in 1978, as long as it is during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. After 12 weeks it is allowed only if the life of the mother is at risk or there is a problem with a foetus. If there is a chance the foetus can survive outside the womb, termination is lawful only if pregnancy or delivery is a serious risk to the woman’s health.