By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman
SPAIN, January 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The pro-abortion vice president of Spain’s ruling Socialist Worker’s Party was surprised recently when he was unexpectedly shown a video showing the gruesome details of late term abortions during a national television interview, and asked to comment on them.
Jose Blanco was being interviewed on the "Cat to the Water" show produced by Intereconomia TV, which early last year did an expose on the abortion industry using a hidden camera. The network filmed and broadcast abortions of babies well beyond 24 weeks gestation, showing them being injected with poison and then thrown in the trash after their premature birth (see LifeSiteNews coverage at http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/dec/07121401.html).
After being shown footage of abortions from the reports, Blanco admitted that he was moved by what he had seen, and stated "I am against abortion. Abortion is an exceptional situation." However, he attempted to defend his party’s pro-abortion position, asserting that the purpose was to protect women and doctors.
Blanco’s party, which has held power since 2004, is currently seeking to liberalize Spain’s already loose abortion laws in response to numerous scandals occurring in late 2007 and early 2008, in which abortion clinics were found to be manufacturing diagnoses of a "psychological" health risk to the mother in order to justify late term abortions according to Spanish law.
If passed, new law will replace such requirements with maximum time periods for abortions, allowing them to secure an abortion without a psychological justification. According to experts who testified before a congressional committee created by the Socialist Worker’s Party, the new law will increase the number of abortions performed in the country, which is already one of the highest rates in all of Europe.