Spain and Abortions

It has been a long time since I have written about Spain. Indeed, at one point in history I wrote so often about the goings-on over there that I decided to have a specific tag "Spain". This has fallen by the wayside in recent months, but I have come across some quite disturbing news. See if you can count the ways this is wrong.

The State Coordinator of Feminist Organizations in Spain said this week that since 13-year-old girls can legally engage in sexual relations in Spain, “then they should also have the right to decide about the consequences of those relations,” without input from their parents.

The State Coordinator of Feminist Organizations sent 12,145 signatures to the Spanish Congress this week opposing the proposed reform of abortion laws, arguing that abortion on demand up to the fourteenth week is “clearly insufficient” and that the proposed reform does not guarantee legal protection for women and health care professionals who perform abortions.

Yolanda Iglesias, the spokesperson for the office, said one of the organization’s complaints is that the law should be broader. “We want the government’s reform not to be so restrictive, so that it truly can be one of the most advanced norms in Europe, as Socialist lawmakers assert it is,” she said.

The feminist groups also oppose requiring doctor’s approval for abortions between the fourteenth and twenty-second week of pregnancy, claiming the requirement leaves “the decision about health and maternity in the hands of others.” “For this reason we are sure that many pregnant women will travel to more permissive countries or will seek out clandestine abortions,” they said.

Here's what I found.

1. The age of consent is 13? How does that remotely even make sense?
2. If 13 is the age of consent, then that implies a certain maturity, but is it really warranted to assume a 13-year old girl has the emotional maturity to make such a decision without even consult of her parents. Would the laws in Spain allow a 13 year old to choose to not receive medical treatment for diabetes against her parents wishes? This should be no different.
3. Considering abortions are legal, what sort of "legal protections" do they mean?
4. Up to the 14th week not enough? What would be enough? I'm sure that any limit would be too restrictive.
5. "Advanced" is apparently the new word to mean liberal, or something of that nature. This is not the way I learned the word.
6. Wouldn't you think doctors would need to approve of an abortion? It would seem doctors need not even be involved in Spain.
7. For that matter, isn't the health of the patient the concern of a doctor in the first place?

Did I miss anything?

Abortionists in Spain Vow to Stop

In quite an interesting turn of events, the Abortion Clinics in a consortium in Spain have vowed to close their doors, (CNA). Unfortunately, this is only a temporary state, and is meant as a protest in favor of "women's rights" among other things.

The “Association of Accredited Clinics,” an umbrella group for all abortion clinics in Spain, said the protest was being organized in response to the crackdown on illegal abortions in Barcelona in December, which revealed that a number of clinics performing late-term abortions in violation of the law.

So, the law says that you cannot commit late term abortions, and I'd guess has some requirements about safety of the mother, among other things. This protest is against a crackdown of illegal facilities. Wouldn't this consortium, if they were legal, not mind that the "rabble" were being weeded out. After all, that would eliminate the competition, right?

It's clear that it is not about the application of the law, they just want to be able to kill as many as possible. They are probably also a bit worried, because they are probably not up to snuff, committing illegal abortions all the time.

It's just ironic that in order to protest the cracking down on abortions is stopping abortions. Maybe all the American abortion clinics will take up this, every time someone challenges them. Right.

Everything is better in Spain

Having a Spanish housemate, I am oft informed how much better some of the things are from Spain. Two news articles are telling of this fact, how much better abortion and the loss of faith is in Spain.

During the last ten years, abortions have almost doubled with an increase of 90.5 percent, making Spain the European country with the greatest increase in the number of abortions, followed by Belgium and Holland.

IFP president Eduardo Hertfelder said 97,000 abortions took place in 2006. “If this trend continues, in 2010 one out of every five pregnancies (125,000 annually) will end in abortion,” he said.

He noted that abortions in 200 were up six percent from 2005, and that the statistics indicate that at the very least, “266 children are not born each day in Spain because of abortion, resulting in one abortion taking place every 5.4 minutes.”

He called the government’s policies “obsolete and erroneous” and said it was “unheard-of that in these times the Ministry of Health does not want to make a distinction between abortions carried out for life or health of the mother and those carried out for psychological reasons, when these represent practically all (96.7%) abortions that take place. “To continue hiding the reality or hiding in empty policies is not, therefore, an effective solution,” Hertfelder stated.

That's something all the abortion people talk about all the time "health of the mother", and "rape or incest". What they don't say is how small a fraction that really makes up.

According to a survey conducted by the Investiga research firm, although 73.8 percent of Spaniards say they are Catholic, only 36 percent admit that they are practicing.

And the article goes on to say that more women than men practice. I wonder what the percentages would be if they more strictly defined "practicing".

Everything is better in Spain.

-JG