MADRID (LifeSiteNews) — Last week, Spain passed a radical new abortion law that eliminates the waiting period prior to obtaining an abortion and institutes the creation of a public list of pro-life doctors who refuse to kill the unborn.
The law, passed by the country’s Congress of Deputies, throws away the three-day waiting period previously in place, which allowed for women to make a more informed decision about whether to abort their children. Medical professionals who refuse to commit abortions may refrain after detailing their objections in writing. However, they are also required to be listed on a public registry outlining which doctors conscientiously object to abortion.
Other provisions in the law include eliminating the requirement to give women the detailed reality of abortion, explaining the risks, and offering information about pro-life alternatives. Women with disabilities are exempt from the requirement to obtain consent from legal guardians and records of having an abortion must be pulled from a woman’s medical records five years after the abortion is committed.
The legislation maintains a provision from a 2010 law, allowing 16 and 17-year-old girls to kill their unborn children without parental knowledge and consent. Pharmacists are also obligated to distribute morning-after pills to women. The pills will be given out for free in “public centers for specialized care in sexual and reproductive rights.”
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The Catholic News Agency noted that the law also promotes increased contraception use by distributing various barrier contraceptives in greater numbers in places such as prisons and social services centers. “The co-responsibility of men” is to be considered in the form of pushing male contraception.
Additionally, the law mandates sex education that promotes gender ideology, contraception, and same-sex relationships for all ages within the education system.
A large number of medical professionals object to committing abortions on religious grounds, leaving over 80% of murders of the unborn to be committed in private centers, as pointed out by NPR.
Despite a large Catholic population, Spain has seen an increase in abortions obtained by pregnant women and girls as well as a greater push to enshrine a “right” to abortion in legislation. A 2019 study found that abortion is treated as birth control in the country, with over half of pregnant teenagers choosing to kill their babies rather than choose life. The data also showed that more than 35,000 mothers had chosen abortion multiple times.
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In April 2022, LifeSiteNews reported that the Spanish senate approved a bill aimed to criminalize pro-lifers who gather outside abortion facilities to peaceful protest the murder of innocent life. The legislation described pro-lifers participating in any form of protest as “harassing women going to clinics for the voluntary interruption of pregnancy.”
The following November, a Catholic bishop defied the legislation and prayed outside an abortion center as part of a local 40 Days for Life vigil. Bishop José Ignacio Munilla criticized the law on social media, saying that “if abortion is progressivism, then the law of the jungle is the height of democracy.”