News

 By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

MADRID, May 12, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Spanish government announced yesterday that pharmacies will be required to sell the abortifacient “morning after pill,” without a prescription and without an age limitation, throughout Spain.

The new regulation, which was announced by Spanish Health Minister Trinidad Jimenez and “Minister of Equality” Bibiana Aido, will take effect in three months.  Jimenez clarified that all pharmacies will be required to carry the drug.

“Once the sale of this drug is authorized, the obligation exists for pharmacies to have it available,” she told the media.  She also claimed that a committee of physicians had determined that the drug poses no serious risks and does not need to be given by prescription.

However, pro-life physicians strongly contradicted Jimenez’ claim.  Dr. Gador Joya, spokesman for the Spanish organization Right to Life, told the pro-life website HazteOir.org that in fact, “the so called day after pill has an abortive effect.  The measure announced by the minister envisions establishing free abortion … It also assumes that children will be given the power to have abortions using this method without their parents’ knowledge or authorization.  It is not only a humanitarian aberration, but a medical one.”

The “morning after pill” is taken to prevent pregnancy in cases in which no contraceptive was used, or the contraceptive failed during the sexual act.  However, if a new human life has already been conceived, the drug acts as an abortifacient by preventing the embryo from attaching to the uterine wall.

Despite the moral problems raised by the drug, Jimenez denies that it is abortifacient and says that she expects no objections from pharmacists. However, the Health Minister is using a definition of pregnancy that is based on the zygote attaching to the uterine wall, rather than the existence of a newly-conceived life.

The International Federation of Associations of Catholic Physicians issued a statement opining that it is “inconceivable that a civilized country would distribute drugs with powerful side effects without medical control” and calling it “one of many perversions of the system towards the medical profession and respect for the life, health, and education of our children,” in the words of the president of the Federation, J.M. Simon.

Despite the government’s official line that the morning after pill is not abortifacient, the new regulation is scheduled to be implemented as part of a planned new abortion law that will permit abortion on demand during the first trimester of pregnancy.  Jimenez claims that the measure will lower the rate of “unwanted pregnancies” and has been proven to work in other European countries.
 
The opposition People’s Party representative for health issues, Ana Pastor, called the new regulation a “true absurdity” and decried the fact that “in a country with a very good health system and that tries to look out for the safety of all, such decisions are adopted for purely political motives.”

While Spain’s abortion rate continues to skyrocket, its birth rate has plummeted to one of the lowest in Europe, 1.3 children per couple.  The falling native Spanish population is being replaced by immigrants from North Africa and Latin America.