Madrid, Spain, Oct 31, 2005 / 22:00 pm
The Association of Victims of Abortion (AVA) in Spain has issued a response to a study by criminal law professor Patricia Laurenzo Copello, which argues that abortion needs to be legalized in that country.
The AVA contradicted the conclusions of the study, explaining that the increase in the number of abortions in Spain is not due to the criminal system but rather to “the lack of recognition of the right of all women who are unexpectedly pregnant to have alternatives to abortion and to know all of the information about the risks, consequences and the methods used to carry out the procedure.”
Victoria Uroz, secretary of the AVA, told Europa Press that the study ignores the fact women who obtain abortions undergo “enormous social pressure and suffer from a lack of real freedom” in making their decision. Women who abort are victims of violence and ignorance because they are never told that abortion causes irreversible psychological, and sometimes physical, damage, and that it takes the life of their child.”
Uroz pointed out that the laws legalizing or regulating abortion should not be modified out of economic or political interests, but rather they should “protect women,” who often receive counseling from health care professionals who are themselves tied to abortion clinics and are the ones who in “97% of the cases” vouch for supposed risk to the mother’s psychiatric health if she goes through with her pregnancy, thus clearing the way for an abortion.
Lastly, the AVA called on health-care professionals to act with “freedom of conscience” in response to these kinds of laws, reminding them that “doctors are taught to serve and care for human life from the moment of conception, as is indicated in their code of ethics.”