Bishops of Spain say new abortion law makes things worse

Madrid, Spain, Jul 5, 2010 / 14:39 pm

The new law on abortion that entered into force today is “objectively incompatible with the upright moral conscience –in particular, the Catholic conscience” Spain’s Conference of Catholic Bishops said on Monday. They added that from an ethical perspective, the new law is worse than the previous statute.

In a statement published on the conference’s website on July 5, the bishops explained that this change in legislation is a deterioration for three reasons.

First and foremost, the new law holds “the elimination of the lives of those who are yet to be born as a right of pregnant women during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy, virtually leaving these human lives without any protection, right during the time in which the greatest number of abortions are produced.”

The second reason, said the statement, is that “it establishes a concept of health that is so ambiguous that it is equivalent to introducing so called social and eugenic indications as legal justifications for abortion.”

In the third place, the law “imposes obligatory abortion and gender ideology into the education system.”

The prelates concluded the statement by saying they speak “precisely in favor of those who have the right to be born and to be welcomed by their parents with love.”

“We speak in favor of mothers who have the right to receive social and state assistance needed to avoid becoming victims of abortion. We speak in favor of the freedom of parents and the schools that collaborate with them to give their children a sexual and emotional formation in accord with their moral convictions which will truly prepare them to be parents themselves, and to welcome the gift of life. We speak in favor of a society which has the right to count on just laws which do not confuse rights with injustice.”