Gynecologists in Spain plan to choose jail before performing an abortion

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Comments: 18

Madrid, Spain, Aug 20, 2009 / 01:55 pm (CNA).- Dr. Esteban Rodriguez, spokesman for the organization Right to Life (Derecho a Vivir) in Spain, responded yesterday to comments by the country’s Minister of Justice, Francisco Caamano, who said there was no room for a conscience clause in the new law on abortion.

“We are willing to go to jail rather than following a criminal law, Rodriguez said, “and we are willing to commit the supposed crime of disobedience before the crime of abortion.”

“We will not kill our patients, nor will we commit a crime against the public health deliberately harming the heath of women, no matter how much the Minister of Justice threatens us and abuses his power,” the doctor said.

“We doctors are not soldiers, nor policemen, nor executioners. There is no civil disobedience in the refusal to kill a human being, but rather the fulfilling of our professional obligation,” he added.

If the government carries out the threat by the Minister of Justice to penalize conscientious objectors as disobedient, Rodriguez said that a “new category of victims of the laws on abortion and the regulation of conscience will be created in the gynecologists who wish to carry out their moral obligations in the face of an imposed ideology.”

After recalling that the statute in the Spanish constitution allowing conscientious objection must be respected, Rodriguez expressed his surprise that the law would shield from prison some doctors who have been convicted of performing illegal abortions, while punishing with prison those doctors who have fought to defend the lives of their patients and the health of women.

“We recommend they think about creating a new level of officials at the ministries of Justice and Equality: fetal executioners,” Dr. Rodriguez remarked.

“We find the totalitarian intentions of the Ministry of Justice, in conjunction with those of Equality, to be highly troubling. If the former Minister of Justice stirred things up with officials in the judiciary, this one is going to accomplish the same thing with medical professionals,” he warned.

Comments: 18

Subscriber comments:

Published by: Jo
UK 10/03/2009 05:11 AM EST

Amen, real courage and boldness being displayed.God will honor you.In Exodus the midwifes refused to kill the hebrew babies as commanded b pharoes due to their fear of GOD.This is true Christianity being displayed and i know God will honor that pure faith.The devil is a murderer,thief and destroyer.May God bless you all and keep standing up for righteousness,i pray that will inspire christians worldwide.

Published by: David Mayfield
Ferguson Kentucky USA 09/16/2009 02:43 PM EST

god bless these doctors I pray that God will give you strength and that He will be your shield.

Published by: Steve
Jonesborough/Tennessee/USA 09/10/2009 04:53 PM EST

Thank the Good Lord these medical professionals have stood for what is right in the sight of God. May the Lord give His grace to you.

Published by: Graham King
Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland 09/03/2009 07:46 AM EST

I thank God for you, Dr Esteban Rodriguez and your colleagues in taking this right stand! May your cause win through! Blessings upon you, and also on all who rightly publicise and support your action and declaration - in favour of life, and for freedom of conscience.

Published by: Julia Ashenden
London UK 08/29/2009 12:56 AM EST

As Kathy Miller says, "we are not fighting against flesh and blood" but we do seem to be fighting against "principalities and powers". These are of the very worst sort who seek to take away from Doctors any conscience clause on performing abortions and thereby force them either to commit murder or to go to prison. Echoes of Hitler and Stalin? Beware all of us.

Published by: Denis Hayes
Exeter England 08/28/2009 12:36 PM EST

Rate: Excellent

When the Abortion Act was introduced in 1967 we were told that there would be plenty of safeguards and that it would prevent back-street abortions. During the following few years abortions were numbered in the low thousands
Today in England and Wales the abortion figure is a little under two hundred thousand and abortions are more or less available on demand. In the UK the people who kill the unborn are lauded as courageous. Those who value life and want to preserve the unborn are scorned. Be warned!

Published by: John Davis
London UK 08/28/2009 11:44 AM EST

Well done to these people for heeding their conscience and not allowing themselves to be bullied by these arrogant elitist politicians.
Keep up the good work, and stay strong.
John Davis

Published by: ruth
england 08/27/2009 05:37 PM EST

I praise God for your lives and I pray that you will be strengthened to stand strong in the days ahead and that God will grant you more doctors to join you in your stand from all over the world. and that this catches on like a wild fire to stop abortion in all countries of the world

Published by: Harold Mayers
Barbados. West Indies 08/27/2009 05:05 PM EST

Congrats to you brave and principled gynaecologists. There are MORE for you than there are AGAINST you.
Press on.

Published by: Noreen Minifie
Ottawa ON Canada 08/27/2009 12:18 PM EST

thank you for taking this courageous stand As a member of the health care team I applaude you and assure you of my prayers that the Lord will keep you strong in your resolve to not back down
WAY TO GO!!!!!

Published by: Kathy Miller
Smyrna,GA USA 08/27/2009 11:27 AM EST

What a great stand you are taking. For your courage, more will follow. Life is precious. We are not fighting against flesh and blood.

Published by: Rosemary
USA 08/27/2009 08:22 AM EST

God Bless you and strengthen you in the days ahead!

Published by: Ingrid
Milwaukee Wisconsin 08/25/2009 06:43 AM EST

Rate: Excellent

This kind of moral courage is so rare these days. Three cheers for these true men and women who are standing up to the death enthusiasts who ram their murderous ethics down the throats of others. God bless you. We stand with you as pro-lifers and Christian broadcasters here in the United States.

Published by: Dave Jones
Orangevale, CA, USA 08/21/2009 12:25 PM EST

Rate: Excellent

Actually the USA might not be the place to move to! There is a Bill pending in Congress called “The Freedom of Choice Act”, which would FORCE Hospitals, Doctors and Nurses to do Abortions. It is a bit strange that something called, Freedom of choice, would eliminate the Choice of the Doctors. Then again the Left Wing is always strange! When the USA had a Military Draft, people that didn’t want to fight, could get a Conscientious Objector status, which the Left Wing fought hard to expand. Now they want to eliminate C.O status for Doctors that don’t want to do an Abortion.

Published by: Richard Cochrane
Edina Mn. 55424 08/21/2009 11:23 AM EST

These people should be encouraged to seek political asylum in the USA. Furtunately we in the US are not so depraved that we jail people for not wanting to partcipate in killing the unborn.It would make for some interesting news.

Published by: Adrian Read
United Kingdom 08/21/2009 09:31 AM EST

Rate: Excellent

Well done Dr Rodriguez! May God give him strength and courage to stand firm against this injustice. We need more doctors like him, especially in the countries of what used to be Christian Europe.

Published by: dAVID LARSEN
scituate Mass. USA 08/21/2009 07:01 AM EST

Rate: Excellent

This will be the 1st group of individuals that will go to prison because they refuse to murder another human being through the sin of abortion. These are the doctors that I would want to take care of a sick loved one of mine. May God help them against their oppressive government.

Published by: robert matzinger
taylor/michigan/usa 08/20/2009 08:55 PM EST

God Bless these doctors for standing up for our Holy Catholic Faith and belive that all life is sacred!

If only more of us would do the same as these!

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