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Wednesday March 1, 2000


SPAIN IN THE GRIP OF THE CULTURE OF DEATH

Abortion Rate Rises – 54,000 Babies Killed in 1998

MADRID, Mar 1 (LSN.ca) – Statistics released by Spain’s Ministry of Health last month indicated that about 54,000 babies were killed by abortion in 1998. The numbers rose 8 per cent from 1997 but the rise is expected to be minimal compared with the 2000 figures since Spanish public hospitals and some private clinics began selling the deadly chemical abortion drug RU-486 (Mifegyne) in early February.

The moral decline in Spain began in the sixties when the birth rate of the once strongly Catholic country began to plummet. LifeSite reported in January that Spain now has the lowest birth rate in the world (1.07) as indicated by data released at the end of last year. The 1999 fecundity survey by the National Statistics Institute (INE) confirmed that, in the past 28 years, Spain’s birth rate has halved. The INE report reveals that in university-educated women aged 25-34, the birth rate is only 0.33.

While the Catholic bishop’s conference has issued a strong pro-life statement in preparation for the upcoming March 12 elections, neither of the main two parties includes any pro-life initiative. Spain allows abortion in cases of risk to the life, physical health, and mental health of the mother and also in cases of supposed fetal deformity.

With files from The Lancet (Feb 10 and 19) and HLI Hispanic Division


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