How Savita Halappanavar’s Death Spurred Ireland’s Abortion Rights Campaign

Flowers, notes and candles amassed Sunday at a mural in central Dublin, the portrait of a bright-eyed young Indian woman, a bindi on her forehead, smiling out from behind the word “YES.”

“Sorry we were too late, but we are here now,” read one message taped to the wall. “We didn’t forget you.”

The woman on the mural was Savita Halappanavar, and her story came to be synonymous with calls for repeal of Ireland’s Eighth Amendment, which effectively banned abortion in Ireland. Her story galvanized the campaigners calling for an end to the ban and was cited again and again when the country overwhelmingly voted on Friday to repeal the amendment.

Dr. Halappanavar’s death in 2012 at age 31 from septicemia — an infection she contracted after she was denied an abortion during a miscarriage — set off outrage across the country and gave momentum to a growing call for change.

For many young Irish women, hers was the first tangible story of how the Eighth Amendment, which was introduced in 1983, could affect them, said Melissa Barnes, a 20-year-old medical student.

“When Savita died, that was kind of the point at which people my age, in that kind of young bracket, were made aware of what was going on,” Ms. Barnes said. “We weren’t even around when the Eighth Amendment was introduced.”