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Spanish Abortion Clinics go on "Strike" to Protest "Persecution"

An Estimated 2,000 Babies' Lives will be Saved

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

SPAIN, January 9, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In the face of numerous police raids, arrests, and negative media reports against their abortion facilities, the members of the Spanish Association of Accredited Clinics for the Interruption of Pregnancy (ACAI) began a "strike" yesterday that is scheduled to last until Saturday, January 12.

According to ACAI spokesman Santiago Barambino, the members of the Association will be protesting the fact that they are treated as "monsters, mafiosos, and delinquents" for killing unborn children up to to the sixth month of gestation, a practice they justify on their website for preserving the "psychological and social well-being" of the mothers.

In recent weeks, ACAI member clinics have been raided by police, and numerous clinic personnel have been arrested for systematic violations of Spain's liberal abortion laws. Doctors and other clinic personnel are charged with fabricating diagnoses of a psychological health "risk" for the women who come to them for late-term abortions and other legal violations. Hidden-camera exposés have exposed more violations and have shown full abortions to the public (see recent LifeSiteNews coverage at http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/dec/07121401.html).

Under the law, doctors can kill unborn children at any stage of pregnancy if an independent physician certifies that a "grave risk" exists for the mother's physical or mental health. On their website, however, a paper by an ACAI member states that the clinics operate under the World Health Organization's broader definition of "health," which defines it as "the state of physical, psychological and social well-being and not the mere absence of illnesses or conditions."

Defending its "strike", the Association complains about the "belligerent attitude of certain groups that struggle to eradicate practices as important for young people as the usage of contraceptives, in favor of a sexual abstinence that demonstrates a profound ignorance of human sexuality." They are demanding instead that the existing law be changed to suit the existing "demand" for their services.

ACAI has thirty clinics, and the Spanish media is reporting that they could be joined by up to 20 more.  It is also estimated that between 1,500 and 2,000 babies and their mothers will be spared their services during the four days of the "strike".

"Neither the government, nor the Madrid administration is guaranteeing the right of women to an abortion, nor the legal security of the professionals of the sector," said Barambio. He complained that the Madrid government was submitting the clinics of his organization to "more inspections than is reasonable" and has rejected "dialogue" with the Association.

The Spanish newspaper ABC ridiculed the strike, noting that "they ignore, much less criticize, the clinics that have been closed both in Madrid and in Barcelona for falsifying documents, principally of psychological reports, that permit abortion at any point of gestation, presumably illegal abortions and the use of food processors (to grind up the bodies of fetuses) or the practice of abortions later than the seventh month of pregnancy."

"Far from all of this, the clinics turn over the tortilla and present themselves as the great victims of the scandal that they themselves have provoked and promote a change of the law so that abortion can be even more permissive in our country," wrote ABC.

Related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Full Abortions Shown On Spanish Television - First In History
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/dec/07121401.html

More Abortion Clinics are Closed by Spanish Government Authorities
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/dec/07121402.html

Late Term Abortionist Arrested by Spain's Police
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/nov/07112913.html

Spanish Abortion Rate Skyrockets to over 100000 Annually
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2008/jan/08010701.html

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