Catholic Exchange

Dr. Esteban Rodriguez, spokesman for the organization Derecho a Vivir (Right to Life) recently said Spanish doctors are willing to face jail rather than kill unborn children under a new law.

“We are willing to go to jail rather than following a criminal law,” Dr. Rodriguez said, “and we are willing to commit the supposed crime of disobedience before the crime of abortion.”

Dr. Rodriguez was responding to comments made earlier by Minister of Justice, Francisco Caamano, who said that Spain’s abortion law would not allow doctors the right to refuse to commit abortions.

“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,” the doctor said.

He said the Zapatero government should think about creating “a new level of officials at the ministries of Justice and Equality: fetal executioners.” Decrying the government’s “imposed ideology,” he recalled that the Spanish constitution guarantees the right of conscientious objection. Rodriguez noted the irony that the new law would shield some doctors from prison for committing illegal abortions while sending others to jail who refused.

“We find the totalitarian intentions of the Ministry of Justice, in conjunction with those of Equality, to be highly troubling. If the former Minister of Justice stirred things up with officials in the judiciary, this one is going to accomplish the same thing with medical professionals,” he warned.

Last week, Derecho a Vivir said that the law on abortion proposed by the Zapatero government would make Spain the European country with the least protection for the unborn and pregnant women. The new law, they said, denies women information on the nature of abortion and leaves the unborn totally unprotected. The socialist government’s reform would be much more permissive than the laws in other EU countries, the group said in a study.

“The government’s claim that it is making Spanish law conform to that of other countries in the area of abortion is false. If the Zapatero-Aido bill is passed, Spain would be the exception,” the study says.

The reaction to the new abortion laws in strongly Catholic Spain has been remarkable, says Derecho a Vivir. The group is organising a mass demonstration on October 17th. Calling “unprecedented” the number of people signing up for bus transportation to the event, Dr. Gador Joya said they expected it to be “one of the largest in the democratic era,” with over a million anticipated participants.

Mothers, the group says, “are entitled to receive all necessary support from society.”

“Life always brings joy, hope and prosperity for everyone. By contrast, abortion always generates pain, suffering and trauma difficult to overcome.”