Madrid, Spain, Dec 18, 2009 / 12:29 pm
Spain’s House of Representatives voted 184 to 158 to pass a reform to the country’s abortion laws that would allow for the procedure up to the 14th week of pregnancy and limit the conscientious objections of medical professionals. The bill, which now moves to the Senate, would also permit 16 year-olds to obtain abortions and force medical schools to teach abortion as a subject.
Socialists, together with other left-wing lawmakers, gathered enough votes to ensure the bill’s passage in the House.
Bishop Juan Antonio Reig Pla of Alcala, who is also president of the the Spanish Bishops’ Subcommittee on Life and the Family, told the COPE Network, “This is a long-term battle. We are experiencing a time of darkness, of crisis in which reason has been overshadowed by perverse freedom.”
“Today we must say to the House of Representatives: Don’t do it,” he added.
The pro-life organizations HazteOir (HO) and Right to Life have strongly rejected the new bill. HO president Ignacio Arsuaga emphasized that the measure would only lead to greater opposition among Spaniards.
“Knowing that this is nothing more than one battle in the long struggle to defend life and women, we will not cease to insist that they listen to society, who is now faced with the profoundly unjust legal reform they are trying to impose on us,” he added.