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Spanish Abortion Rate Skyrockets to over 100,000 Annually

Coinicides with large increase in use of contraceptives and morning after pill

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

SPAIN, January 7, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Spain's annual surgical abortion rate, which has increased dramatically since the socialist government's decriminalization of the practice in 1985, has now reached over 100,000 annually, according to recently-released government figures.  The increase represents a doubling of the number of surgical abortions since 1997, when the rate was a little less than 50,000.

As the Spanish pro-family website "Forum Libertas" observes, this increase has occurred despite the promotion of contraception and the introduction of the "morning after pill", which are touted by their promoters as a means of avoiding the "necessity" of a later abortion. 

According to Forum Libertas, the use of contraceptives has increased 60% since 1997, and "morning after pill" use has increased 67% since it was introduced in the year 2000. And still, or more likely because of these factors and some others, the abortion rate has doubled since 1997.

In reality, "morning after" drugs are abortifacient themselves, and therefore their use has actually added to the total number of abortions performed annually, on top of the increasing rate of surgical abortions.

Since 1985, Spain has allowed abortions up to twenty-two weeks of pregnancy in cases of "grave" threats to the mother's psychological or physical health. The "psychological" rationale is widely believed to account for almost all abortions, although the official statistics do not distinguish between physical and mental health reasons.  Outside "maternal health", fetal abnormalities, rape cases, and "other" comprise slightly more than three percent of the total number of surgical abortions.

In the last year, Spanish and foreign news broadcasters have done exposes on Spain's astounding abortion industry, showing that the private clinics that perform the abortions routinely do so in violation of the abortion laws of Spain and other European countries, manufacturing diagnoses of "psychological risk" to justify the abortions under Spanish law.

In recent weeks, numerous abortion clinics have been closed by Spanish authorities for violations of the nation's abortion laws, and several doctors and clinic personnel are being prosecuted.  At least one foreign woman who obtained an illegal abortion in Spain has also been arrested (see LifeSiteNews coverage at http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/dec/07121402.html).

Based on statistics provided by the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Forum Libertas observes that at least 166 of the babies aborted in the last year survived the initial procedure and were born alive, taking up to 80 minutes to die outside the womb.

The Spanish newspaper El Pais, while attempting to attribute the increase to a lack of contraceptive use and a "failure" in sex education, admitted that "the perception that abortion may be, in some cases, one more contraceptive method" may be the cause of the increase.

This reason, wrote the newspaper, "is supported by the data: in some 31% of the cases, the woman had had at least one previous abortion.  One thousand two hundred and forty cases were fifth (or later) abortions."

See related LifeSiteNews.com story:

New Report Admits: Emergency Contraception Does Not Reduce Abortion
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jan/07010908.html

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