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Spanish Gynecologists Denounce Post-viability Abortions

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

MADRID, July 18, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The president of the Spanish Society of Gynecology and Obstetrics (SEGO) gave a press conference earlier this month stating that when fetuses older than 22 weeks gestation are killed in their mother's womb, the procedure should not be called an "abortion" but the "destruction of a viable fetus," underscoring the belief of the society that there is no valid reason to intentionally kill a post-viability unborn child.

Currently in Spain , abortion is legal up to the time of birth in cases of physical or "psychological" risk to the mother.
 
In recent months the abortion issue has risen to the fore in Spain, after it was revealed that several Spanish abortion mills were performing illegal post-viability abortions by falsifying certifications of psychological risk, which must be provided by an independent physician. At some of these mills evidence was found that personnel were grinding up post-viability fetuses and disposing of them through the drainage system
 
Referring to these recent scandals, Dr. Manuel Bajo Arenas stated, "Grinding a fetus into a pulp with a disposal unit cannot be considered abortion" (see LifeSiteNews coverage at http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/nov/07112913.html).

Basing his statements on an ethics report issued by a SEGO committee, Bajo Arenas told the press, "We see very few justifications, if any, to interrupt gestations after 24 weeks (22 of gestation)."

"Anyone who has seen an ultrasound, who sees how a child moves after 24 weeks...just the fact of interrupting the gestation there with a grinder...until literally making it into pulp to expel it, is something that we can't support," said Bajo Arenas.

In those cases where, for whatever reason, it appears to be medically "appropriate" to interrupt a late-term pregnancy, the doctor asked, "Why destroy the child within? Induce labor and try to save it."

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