Morning-after pill distorts abortion figures in Spain, experts assert

Madrid, Spain, Sep 15, 2010 / 20:03 pm

The president of the Institute for Family Policy in Spain, Eduardo Hertfelder, charged this week that the widespread distribution of the morning-after pill has not resulted in fewer abortions - as government officials have reported.

Spain’s Health Minister, Trinidad Jimenez, attributed the decline in the unofficial number of first-time abortions to the legalization of the morning-after pill. According to the newspaper La Razon, Jimenez said abortions have dropped by more than 3,000 since 2008.   Hertfelder called that claim a “lie.” “Perhaps there are fewer surgical abortions,” he said, “but chemical abortions, like those caused by the pill, are on the rise.”

In fact, the morning-after pill began to be made available with prescription to Spanish women and teens last year, and in the first few months more than 388,000 doses were distributed.

To claim that abortions have declined because of the drug “is a way of camouflaging chemical abortions,” Hertfelder asserted. 

Benigno Blanco from the Forum on the Family added, “The promotion of contraceptives creates a false sense of security that unleashes an increase in promiscuity and sexual relations and, consequently, increases the risk of contracting sexually-transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies.”

The “unofficial decline” in the number of abortions “is without basis,” Blanco added, noting with regret that the country’s Minister of Equality has celebrated these figures as “a triumph of the law on abortion, which is so tragic and harmful for women.”