Archbishop criticizes Spanish government’s approval of abortion bill

Madrid, Spain, Sep 1, 2022 / 14:35 pm

Archbishop Luis Javier Argüello Garcia of Valladolid criticized Spain’s Council of Ministers Tuesday for approving an abortion bill, stressing that abortion “is never a right” and that the bill’s content is “totally symptomatic of a way of governing.”

With the approval of the council, the government’s primary decision-making body, the bill will now make its way through the legislative process.

In an Aug. 30 tweet, Archbishop Argüello, who is secretary general of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference, pointed out as especially harmful the fact that reflection and information for women is eliminated.

“The new law eliminates information and reflection as something prior and indispensable to make such a serious decision about the life of another person,” the prelate underscored, emphasizing that “denying information and reflection” is “totally symptomatic of a way of governing.” 

The prelate also elaborated on why the bill is open to criticism. 

Speaking to the radio station owned by the Spanish Bishops’ Conference, Argüello stated that proposing abortion as a right is “awful,” more so in the context of the demographic winter in Spain.

“In a situation of demographic winter, where advances in science make it possible to say unequivocally that within a woman there is a new life, proposing abortion as a right, and trying to resolve the conflict, which I recognize can occur in certain situations, to think that the solution to that conflict is to annihilate the one who is also the weakest, frankly, it is something awful,” he pointed out.

The archbishop of Valladolid noted that “the imposition of the will to power and the right to decide of a person about someone so fragile and vulnerable, who is a person who is already in the womb of a pregnant woman” can’t be considered progressive.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.