.- An advocacy group in Spain strongly criticized the country's Collegial Medical Organization for approving a new ethics code that could restrict doctors from objecting to performing abortions.
In a statement sent to CNA on July 12, the National Association for the Defense of the Right to Conscientious Objection condemned the organization for approving the code behind closed doors and without input from its members.
Association members say the proposal for the new code of ethics wasn't slated for discussion until September.
They also criticized the “secretive” manner in which the code was enacted and said it violated the rights of the members of the Collegial Medical Organization to object and to file further complaints if their concerns were not acknowledged.
The statement also pointed to what members called numerous contradictions in the new code, which they say purports to uphold the protection of human life, yet forces doctors to “become promoters of abortion against their scientific knowledge.”
The association said it would provide legal counsel to those doctors “who feel the imposition of this code would restrict their professional autonomy.”
