19 November 2008 — Vol. 10/ No. 49
Spain is now undergoing Socialist Party president Zapatero’s second
term. These past years have seen the rampant growth of anti-Catholic
and anti-life positions in the government, positions that seem often
to go hand-in-hand.
Right now the Spanish congress, dominated by Zapatero’s party, is
debating a liberalization of Spain’s abortion laws. Abortion is
supposedly legal only for cases of rape, “fetal defect,” and danger to
the mother’s physical or psychological health. In the case of rape
and fetal defect the law allows abortions between 12 and 22 first
weeks of pregnancy. For the “health” exception, however, there are no
time limits.
But the socialists want more.
Zapatero’s party commission was able to proceed without any
problems until the testimony of Eduardo Hertfelder, the president of
Spain’s Institute of Family Policy. With the aid of detailed
diagrams, Hertfelder showed how abortion has actually increased in
Spain over the last 10 years, to more than double its original rate.
He also showed how abortion is the the principle cause of death in
Spain and of violence against women. The evidence showed that 97% of
abortions are performed because of a “risk to the woman’s
psychological health,” which essentially allows abortion to be
performed at any time.
Based on these findings, Hertfelder showed that abortion has
increased so much in Spain that, calculating only until December 2006,
1,225,000 abortions have been performed in Spain. The socialist
argument–that liberalized abortion laws will lead to fewer
abortions–rings hollow in the face of the numbers. The fact of the
matter is, the law is already flexible enough to allow abortion on
demand, but the abortion rate still increases and increases.
The socialists also argue that they want to be equal to other
European nations, insisting that the rest of Europe is more liberal
than Spain on the topic of abortion. But Hertfelder demonstrated with
numbers and data that this is simply not the case. The two countries
that allow abortion by risk of the health of the mother, without any
time limits, are Spain and Greece. As for the rest, two out of three
of the rest of the EU nations require abortion to be justified by
stricter standards. Many of them have instated waiting periods and
required consultations before granting permission to abort.
Thus, the Socialist argument collapses on a second count: not
everyone in Europe has laws as permissive as the ones the Socialist
Party wants to implement in Spain.
At the end of Hertfelder’s exhibition, the Socialist leader of the
congressional commission accused Hertfelder of manipulating his data.
This accusation is ridiculous because the information is readily
available on the internet, as well as being officially used for years
by the European Parliament. The accusation represented an enormous
breach of Congressional protocol, and the opposition party expressed
anger and disappointment with Zapatero’s authoritarian
attitude.
After his presentation, Hertfelder said, “I got the impression
that the socialist deputies were very nervous. This attitude
demonstrates that the Socialist Party does not want a debate. They
are rooted in ideological sectarianism and only interested in hearing
that which supports their theses.”
In order to support his words, Hertfelder showed that while in
France the abortion rate increased to 5% and in England 9%, in Spain
the increase was 53%. In addition, according to a survey published by
the newspaper The World, 57% of Spaniards do not want a more
liberal abortion law. But listening to the people is not the style of
Zapatero or his government.
The near future can be very well described by a quote from Jim
Hoagland in a Washington Post column, where he said that “If Obama
needs a European to ride shotgun, as Tony Blair did with Bill Clinton
and George W. Bush, Zapatero may be the one.”
If this is the case, the battle for life over the next several
years will be clear.
Carlos Beltramo is PRI’s Correspondent in Spain.
