Spanish Socialists fail to derail draft abortion restriction law

The Irish Times in its usual anti unborn life mode seem to take the view, in branding it unpopular, that the proposed restrictions to Spain’s abortion very liberal abortion law is some kind of calamity.

It was actually the introduction of abortion on demand by the former Zapatero government that was highly unpopular and at the time brought more than one million Spaniards out on the street to

--> demonstrate their opposition. BBC report at that time

There is no doubt that the proposed new law is sincere in wanting to protect unborn life but nevertheless is misguided. It will go some way towards protecting the unborn however it will still allow abortion in the case of rape, serious foetal deformity or in the event of a grave mental or physical health risk to the mother.

The Irish Times article can be found on this link and is reprinted below

Spain’s Socialists failed on Tuesday to block an unpopular draft law restricting women’s access to abortions, which has sparked large protests across the country and caused rare rifts in the conservative People’s Party (PP) that sponsored the Bill.

In an unusual secret ballot, which gave its members a chance to go against the ruling party’s line without being exposed, the PP, with an absolute majority in parliament, was able to defeat a motion to block the law.

Thousands of people all over Spain have joined marches in recent weeks to show their opposition to the Bill, which will limit abortion to cases of rape or severe danger to the mother’s health.

Restrictive regime

Several PP politicians have spoken out against the law, which will make Spain one of the most restrictive countries in Europe and overturns rules that allow abortions on demand in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy. But the motion, put forward by the Socialists, was rejected by 183 votes, with 151 in favour and six abstentions.

“If this goes ahead, the number of abortions in Spain will [still] rise and many of them will be more dangerous abortions for women,” said Elena Valenciano, deputy leader of the Socialists, told parliament in a debate before the vote. “Inequality will grow. Spanish women will once again be divided into two groups: those that can travel to a neighbouring country and undergo a safe abortion and those that cannot.”

A PP member of parliament defended the party, saying it was in favour of further debate rather than simply dismissing the issue. “We are prepared to have a dialogue,” Marta Torrado de Castro said.

The Bill will be subject to more discussions in parliament before being written into law.

Prime minister Mariano Rajoy’s cabinet approved the draft bill last December in a move widely seen as a bid to soothe his party’s right wing, although the PP has lost ground to the Socialists in opinion polls since.

Polls show 80 per cent of Spaniards, including practising Catholics, support abortion on demand. – (Reuters)

Spanish government poised to change abortion law; Report

Associated Press reported last week that Spain's Justice Minister says the conservative government will present by the end of October its proposed changes to the country's abortion law, with the amendments expected to introduce new restrictions on pregnancy terminations.

See Star Tribune article.

Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon said in a recent interview with Radio Nacional de Espana the alterations "will be in line with the Popular Party's longstanding position" on abortion, though he did not elaborate.

The Popular Party has long sided with the Catholic Church on moral and social issues, and fought the previous Socialist government's 2010 abortion law scrapping restrictions up to the 14th week of pregnancy.

Changing that law was one of the Popular Party's main election promises in a 2011 ballot that brought it to power. Its parliamentary majority enables it to pass legislation despite other parties' opposition.

Over 250,000 people signed a petition last year seeking to repeal the country's liberal abortion law that replaced the 1985 one, following reports that abortion levels had dramatically increased ever since that legislation was approved.

Unborn baby receives surgery in utero

Contact Gènéthique  reports that, Spanish doctors on 13 March 2012, announced that they had carried out an operation in utero on the lung of a foetus aged 26 weeks and weighing 800 grammes with a bronchial obstruction. The little girl was born eleven weeks later. Now aged 16 months, she is in good health.

Eduard Gratacos, head of the foetal medicine department of the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, said that "this is the first time in the world that such an operation has been attempted and succeeded."

The bronchial atresia that he foetus was suffering from was life-threatening: developing abnormally, the lung "behaved like a tumour" liable to compress the heart and provoke cardiac arrest. Affecting one foetus out of 10,000, this genetic malformation leads in 90% of cases to the death of the foetus or the new-born child.

The operation took less than 30 minutes. The doctors carried out an endoscopy to reach the point of obstruction in the bronchial tubes which they perforated by laser before "reconnecting them" in the bronchial tree. It was an extremely delicate operation as the tissue involved is as "fine as cigarette paper". The diseased lung was thus reduced to the normal size. The child was born some time later and was treated without complication for a slight respiratory insufficiency.

Are some of Spain's Socialists turning against the "Zapatero Project"?

The following piece appears on the Iona Catholic blog, and bearing in mind the anti life and family agenda of the current Zapatero project which is being imposed on Spanish society it makes for very interesting reading:

Left wing Spanish political group, Solidarity, has issued a press release explaining that its ideology has led it to defend the right to life of the unborn from conception to natural death, in clear opposition to abortion.

In its statement, Solidarity said, ‘We are socialists and we oppose abortion and its legalisation.  We oppose all attacks on life: the death penalty, torture, hunger, the arms race, war, slavery,’ Catholic News Agency reports.

The group called abortion ‘an odious act of violence carried out against the unborn and against mothers.’

‘With such a “pseudo-progressive” measure as abortion advocacy a so-called socialist party, headed by Zapatero, has explicitly put forward a neoliberal political and economic capitalist program,’ the statement said.

The statement later indicated that ‘the womb of the mother should be the most protected place in nature.  Society must also protect children and mothers before and after birth.’

One of the members of the group, Jesus Berenger, 41, explained, ‘I am part of the left and the left before used to defend life, the weakest, but now the parties are driven by their interests.  I defend the dignity of the person.  I am against hunger, exploitation and abortion, which is murder.’

A very important book was published in 2010 by Ignacio Arsuaga and Miguel Vidal Santos, titled

"The Zapatero Project. Chronicle of an Assault on Society". The book deals with the New Spanish Revolution: How socialists under Zapatero are reshaping Spain.

 

Zapatero’s originally hidden agenda was aimed at profoundly changing Spain in the ideological, cultural, legislative, social and political fields. “The change we invoke,” Zapatero acknowledged, “goes far beyond a mere change in government. The change is the transformation of society.”

The Zapatero Project shows that this transformation represents a new totalitarianism involving the brainwashing of children, the destruction of the family, the denial of the right to life, the eviction of the Catholic Church from the public square and the deconstruction of the nation.

However the elements of this project are not limited to Spain. The same secularist program is being pushed by many European governments and by many elected and non-elected bodies of the European Union.

Like Mr Zapatero, they aim at a legal and social order “inspired by philosophical and political systems which call for strict control, if not a monopoly, of the state over society"

"Morning after pill" distorts abortion figures in Spain according to experts

The president of the Institute for Family Policy in Spain, Eduardo Hertfelder, charged this week that the widespread distribution of the morning-after pill has not resulted in fewer abortions - as government officials have reported. According to a CNA news report

Spain's Health Minister, Trinidad Jimenez, attributed the decline in the unofficial number of first-time abortions to the legalization of the morning-after pill. According to the newspaper La Razon, Jimenez said abortions have dropped by more than 3,000 since 2008. Hertfelder called that claim a "lie." "Perhaps there are fewer surgical abortions," he said, "but chemical abortions, like those caused by the pill, are on the rise."

In fact, the morning-after pill began to be made available with prescription to Spanish women and teens last year, and in the first few months more than 388,000 doses were distributed.

To claim that abortions have declined because of the drug "is a way of camouflaging chemical abortions," Hertfelder asserted.

Benigno Blanco from the Forum on the Family added, "The promotion of contraceptives creates a false sense of security that unleashes an increase in promiscuity and sexual relations and, consequently, increases the risk of contracting sexually-transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies."

The "unofficial decline" in the number of abortions "is without basis," Blanco added, noting with regret that the country's Minister of Equality has celebrated these figures as "a triumph of the law on abortion, which is so tragic and harmful for women.

Spanish Family Forum calls the decision of the Constitutional Court an “immense error”

The Spanish Family Forum is highly critical of the Spanish Constitutional Court for deciding not to suspend the new law on abortion calling the decision "An immense error." The Constitutional Court they say shows reprehensible indifference to the good at stake: the lives of unborn children.

The Forum has issued the following press release.

Madrid, 14 July 2010. By voting not to suspend the new Law on Abortion as a precautionary measure, the Constitutional Court shows reprehensible indifference to the good at stake: the life of unborn children who, together with the women who are victims of abortion, are totally defenseless under the terms of the new law. No formal or legal argument is sufficient to allow a fundamental right to be ignored given the serious doubts about the unconstitutional nature of the new law. The fact that four of the Constitutional Court judges expressed their reserve indicates that it is possible to interpret the law in a way which would avoid the irreparable damage the new Law will produce while the Constitutional Court reaches a decision.

The President of Spanish Family Forum, Benigno Blanco, points out:”A very large number of Spanish people simply cannot understand the indifference which this decision of the Constitutional Court shows towards the grave damage which will be caused by the application of a law which we believe violates rights guaranteed by our Constitution. The fact that a majority of Judges voted against temporarily suspending the law shows that something is seriously wrong with our constitutional system in respect of the defense of fundamental rights. As was indicated in the appeal lodged by the People’s Party, if a circumstantial majority in Parliament approved a law allowing capital punishment, this doctrine would mean that the Constitutional Court would allow the law to be applied and people be executed while reaching a decision on whether the new law was constitutional or not”.

“After this immense error by the Constitutional Court, - Benigno Blanco continues – all that can be done is to demand the utmost urgency in the hearing of the appeal so that the unconstitutional nature of the law be declared in the shortest time possible and the damaged caused be reduced to the minimum”.

Spain's Zapatero government, to proceed with liberalisation of abortion law.

The Spanish cabinet have announced their proposals to make abortion available on demand during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy. It is understood that girls as young as 16 would be allowed to terminate a pregnancy without parental consent. (BBC News)

Officially Spain's current law allows babies to be aborted following rape, when a baby has genetic defects, and when the health of a woman is at risk. In practice however the law is actually applied much more liberally and many Spanish women have been able to secure abortions by arguing that pregnancy was endangering their mental health.

The new plan has been launched despite the objections of Spanish doctors, despite major pro-life marches held simultaneously in 80 cities across Spain earlier this year and despite appeals by the Catholic Church. In launching the new proposals the Zapatero government is expected to curtail conscientious objection by medical personnel.

Spain’s Justice Minister Francisco Caamano is on record as saying that when it comes to abortion “there is no room for conscientious objection”. This chilling statement was met with a counter statement by Dr. Esteban Rodriguez of Derecho a Vivir (Right to Life) who said "We are willing to go to jail rather than following a criminal law"..."and we are willing to commit the supposed crime of disobedience before the crime of abortion." Dr Rodriguez also said "We will not kill our patients, nor will we commit a crime against the public health deliberately harming the health of women, no matter how much the Minister of Justice threatens us and abuses his power". LifeSiteNews.com

The objections to the proposed law reflect the writings of the great pro-life champion of the 20th century, Pope John Paul II who in his encyclical, Evangelium Vitae said "Abortion and euthanasia are thus crimes which no human law can claim to legitimize. There is no obligation in conscience to obey such laws; instead there is a grave and clear obligation to oppose them by conscientious objection." (Evangelium Vitae, 73) see also SPUC Director Blogspot

Spanish Government to allow unrestricted access to morning after pill

The Spanish government plans to allow the morning-after pill to be sold over the counter in pharmacies and without prescription within the next 3 months.

Spanish Health minister Trinidad Jimenez, said there would be no age restriction which implies that it will be available to teenage girls without parental consent. Irish Examiner

The Health Minister also said that she expects no objections from pharmacists and in a clear attack on any possible level of conscientious objection she said all pharmacies will be required to carry the drug. "Once the sale of this drug is authorized, the obligation exists for pharmacies to have it available," she told the media. She also claimed that a committee of physicians had determined that the drug poses no serious risks and does not need to be given by prescription.Despite much evidence to the contrary Jimenez denied that the morning-after pill is abortifacient.


Pro-life physicians strongly contradicted the Health Minister's claim. Dr. Gador Joya, spokesman for the Spanish organization Right to Life, told the pro-life website HazteOir.org that in fact,

"the so called day after pill has an abortive effect. The measure announced by the minister envisions establishing free abortion ... It also assumes that children will be given the power to have abortions using this method without their parents' knowledge or authorization. It is not only a humanitarian aberration, but a medical one."

LifeSite News.com

God save Spain's Pro-Life Queen!

I would never have described myself as a monarchist, but I have to admire the courage and highly-principled stand of the Queen of Spain, Doña Sofia Margarita Victoria Frederica, on the life issues. A new book based on interviews with her has caused a stir in her country after she expressed her opposition to abortion and euthanasia.

In her own words:

"It is necessary to respect every living child, every child that has begun to live. And to be in favor of life is not backward, nor is it something confined to Christianity. It is to follow the natural law."

Of death with dignity she adds:

"Life and death are not in our hands. Death with dignity? I'm completely in agreement. Those who are in agony should be in better conditions, these are their final moments. For humanity's sake, they should have the pain taken away, and for that there are sedatives, palliatives. I don't think that any doctor, any nurse, any health worker, should be willing to kill someone, even if it is requested or it is required by the hospital."