MADRID, Spain, April 2, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – Abortion numbers in Spain among teenage girls and immigrants are on the rise, contributing significantly to a birth deficit that will have far-reaching negative consequences for the country, according to a study released by the Institute for Family Policy (IPF).
Among the findings, more than half of pregnant teenage mothers abort their babies. In the case of immigrants, one in three immigrant mothers take recourse to abortion.
The IPF report found that abortion is used as a form of birth control in Spain. Four of every 10 abortions (35,0250) have been among women and girls who previously aborted their babies. Also, 1,390 adolescents under age 20 have had more than one abortion, 12,051 women (13 percent of the total) have aborted more than twice, and 4,314 (five percent of the total) have aborted more than three times.
Girls as young as 16 may request an abortion if they have permission from parents or guardians. However, by claiming domestic violence, for instance, they may obtain government social services.
The study found that the number of registered abortions in 2017 (94,123) is equal to one-third of Spain’s birth deficit. If there were not abortions, the fertility index would be approximately 1.7 children per mother instead of the current 1.31 and thus closer to the level of generational replacement (2.1), the report revealed.
Abortion, it asserted, is one of the causes of the upside-down population pyramid in Spain in which the percentage of elderly persons is growing faster than the youngest.
In 2016, life expectancy was 80 for men and 85 for women; by 2065, the figures will rise to 88 and 91, respectively, if trends continue.
The discrepancy between births and the number of elderly was made clear in a report issued by Spain’s national statistics agency in January. The agency revealed that after five consecutive years of decreasing abortion numbers, Spain saw in 2017 an increase of more than 4,000 aborted babies over 2016. There were 10.5 abortions per 1,000 women in 2017, a figure lower than in the years prior to 2010, when there were 11.71 abortions per 1,000 women.
IPF revealed that there has been a growing preference for chemical abortion (Misoprostol and morning-after pills) over surgical methods: one of every five abortions is carried out through chemical means. The number of chemical abortions has quadrupled from five percent in 2010 to 20 percent in 2017.
In addition, the report said Spain is seeing more abortions than are being reported by government statisticians. In 2017, the report said there were more than 100,000 abortions, given that the Spanish Ministry of Health data are incomplete because several regions of the country do not report the number of chemical abortions. Abortions induced by drugs do not require reporting by government agencies in all cases.
Eduardo Hertfelder, president of the Institute for Family Policy, stated that abortion “destroys human capital, puts the brakes on the birth rate, while promoting an aging population and an upside-down population pyramid.”
IPF is calling for the abolition of Spain’s abortion law and demanding a scientific study of the problems women have during pregnancy and in bearing children. The institute wants to see a national plan to promote and study birthrate, pregnancy, and motherhood. It also wants abortion designated as an act of violence against women and preborn children by passing a law for the protection of motherhood, as well as a government commitment on demography and the birthrate.
In a study published in 2010 by Sigma: A Journal of Political and International Studies, researcher Lauren Soelberg noted that in 1963, Europe accounted for 12.5 percent of the world's population. “Now that number has dropped to 7.2 percent, and by 2050 it is predicted to drop to only 5 percent,” Soelberg wrote.
In an article published in the British Medical Journal in 2000, the author wrote that Spain’s population will decrease by 9.4 million over the next 50 years. Citing a United Nations report, by 2050 the country will have the highest percentage of old people in the world. The solution, the article suggested, is to import immigrants at the rate of 260,000 per year.