The National Association for the Defense of the Right to Conscientious Objection by Biomedical Personnel (ANDOC) underscored in a statement to ACI Prensa that the constitutional function of the ombudsman is “to defend the fundamental rights and public freedoms of citizens by supervising the activity of public administrations.”
The association pointed out that abortion “is not a fundamental right; it doesn’t appear in our magna carta or in any universally recognized declaration of rights,” whereas the right to conscientious objection is included in the Spanish Constitution, “linked closely to freedom of conscience and ideology recognized in Article 16 and that all citizens have, whom it must serve and protect.”
“We think that the ombudsman will also be willing to listen to the objectors and the health care professionals in general and to so many women who, due to lack of means, are forced to have an abortion,” ANDOC added.
“We want to think that he isn’t acting at the request of (another) party, something quite contrary to the high responsibility that his position entails,” the association said.
Abortion in Spain
The reality is that, in Spain, abortion has been considered a (non-fundamental) right since 2010 and is included in the list of public medical services.
However, since the first abortion law was passed in 1985, the vast majority of abortions — not only in Madrid but also at the national level — are performed through the private abortion industry. Between 2011 and 2020 alone, according to data from the Ministry of Health, between 84.5% and 96.6% of abortions were performed in private facilities each year, the vast majority of them in outpatient centers.
The numbers are due to the fact that the vast majority of health care professionals exercise their right to conscientiously object to taking the life of an unborn human being.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
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