No members of Spanish committee on maternal health are pro-life, organization charges

Barcelona, Spain, Jul 30, 2010 / 19:58 pm

The president of Professionals for Ethics (PPE) in Catalonia, Ramon Novella, denounced the government of the Spanish region because it “wants to give carte blanche to the abortion business and to the contraception sector” through the implementation of a commission on maternal care and reproductive health.

Novella’s denunciation refers to the government of Catalonia's creation of an advisory committee on maternal care, paying special attention to emotional, sexual and reproductive health.

Novella indicated that the new committee will facilitate the enactment of Spain’s new abortion law. Members of the commission include: the Association for Family Planning of Catalonia and Balears, the Catalonian Society for Contraception and the Bioethics Advisory Committee of Catalonia. The administration will also be appointing various individuals to the commission.

“The commission doesn’t reflect the plurality of society because it doesn’t include representatives of parents nor from entities that work in defense of life, the family and pregnant women. Neither does it mention groups which promote natural methods of controlling fertility,” Novella added.

He declared that, faced with this situation, the PPE will present claims which ask, among other things, that the words “reproductive and sexual health” be removed because they are terms “used as a pretext to justify abortion and the distribution of contraceptives.”

Novella concluded by calling on families and associations to mobilize and fight to modify this project.