DUBLIN — A woman who died after being refused a potentially lifesaving abortion even while she was having a miscarriage was told that her repeated pleas could not be granted because Ireland is a Catholic country, an inquest has confirmed.

In a case that has reignited tensions over Ireland’s strict abortion laws, Ann Maria Burke, the midwife who attended to the pregnant woman, said at the inquest in Galway on Wednesday that the remark “had come out the wrong way” and that she had not meant it to be hurtful.

The pregnant woman, Savita Halappanavar, a dentist born in India, “had mentioned the Hindu faith and that in India a termination would be possible,” Ms. Burke said. “I was trying to be as broad and explanatory as I could. It was nothing to do with medical care at all.”

The state coroner, Dr. Ciaran McLoughlin, testified that public hospitals in Ireland were not bound by any religious dogma.