Reclaiming Our Children: A Blog About Healing After Abortion

It always amazes me when I read articles like the one below, how these clinics are more worried about themselves then the women who are being given illegal abortions and having their lives endangered.

Private Spanish Abortion Clinics Begin Five-Day Strike, Citing Persecution

11 Jan 2008   

About 40 private abortion clinics in Spain on Tuesday began a
five-day strike to protest what they say is persecution by
abortion-rights opponents and government inspectors, the New York Times reports.

According
to Francisca Garcia Gallego — regional director of the Association of
Accredited Abortion Clinics, which organized the strike — the Spanish
government has not protected abortion clinics or patients after an
increase in protests by abortion opponents and raids by local
authorities, which led to more than 12 arrests last month. Garcia added
that clinics have been vandalized and that clinic workers have been
insulted and in at least one or two cases, hit by protesters in recent
weeks (Burnett, New York Times, 1/9).

Local
police in Barcelona last month arrested 13 people, mostly ob-gyns and
anesthetists, in the raids, which targeted clinics accused of
performing illegal abortions, Reuters reports (Harding, Reuters,
1/8). Spain allows abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy in cases
of rape, in the first 22 weeks if the fetus is malformed and at any
time during pregnancy if a doctor certifies that the pregnant woman’s
mental or physical health is at risk. In addition, some clinics were
accused of performing abortions using falsified medical certificates,
the AP/San Diego Union-Tribune reports (Giles, AP/San Diego-Union Tribune, 1/8).

Among
those arrested in the raids was Peruvian physician Carlos Morin, who
appeared in a television program in which he offered an abortion to an
undercover Danish journalist eight months’ pregnant for 4,000 euros, or
about $5,880 (Reuters, 1/8). According to the Times, Morin’s arrest has "set off a flurry" of media reports about women who travel to Spain to receive abortions (New York Times, 1/9).

The
association said regional and national authorities have rejected its
attempts to address its concerns following the arrests. The association
also did not rule out future strikes if the issue is not addressed.
According to the AP/Union-Tribune, the strike is
estimated to affect about 2,000 women in the country. Women who were
scheduled to receive abortions during the strike received the procedure
early or were given a new appointment after the strike (AP/San Diego-Union Tribune, 1/8). During the strike, clinics will accept only emergency cases, according to Garcia.