Spain would save $72 million by axing abortion funding

Madrid, Spain, May 17, 2012 / 15:09 pm

The spokesman for the organization Right to Life in Spain, Gador Joya, said eliminating abortion funding from the federal budget would save Spain nearly $72 million.

According to Europa Press, Joya suggested the funds be used for a comprehensive maternity program, with special emphasis on women with “unexpected pregnancies.”

She criticized the government for continuing to provide funding for abortion, while at the same time arguing that the health care system is too poor to pay for treatments such as hip replacements.

“At times we have the sensation that the government does not want to confront the harsh reality.  Abortion is the cruel and violent death of a human being. It does not cure or prevent an illness, and therefore it cannot be recognized as a health care benefit,” she added.

Joya said the Spanish government needs to take action quickly “because each day 300 children are dying, and since the new government has taken office, more than 40,000 lives have been lost. 

Right to Life, together with the Forum on the Family, have issued an “urgent” appeal to the government to cut funding for abortion, after the country’s Health Minister, Ana Mato, said Spain’s national health care system would continue to cover the procedure.

The president of the Forum on the Family, Benigno Blanco, underscored that many Spaniards find it “totally unacceptable” that their tax dollars are being used to pay for abortions, and he said the laws that force public hospitals to cover abortions should be struck down “as soon as possible.”

Blanco said it was particularly incongruous that the law itself has separated abortion for any issue related to health and has turned it into a right that can be exercised by a woman without any medical reason whatsoever.