Spain Abortions Increasing, Especially on Teenage Girls, Pro-Life Group Says
Madrid, Spain (LifeNews.com) -- Young women and girls in Spain are becoming the victims of abortion at an alarming rate, according to the Institute for Family Policy in Spain. "Every half hour in Spain a girl under the age of 20 receives an abortion, and each day there is at least one abortion performed on girls under the age of 15 (496 abortions in 2006). In 99.5% of the cases there is a psychological or physical risk for the mother. This data should make us reflect on what is happening," said Eduardo Hertfelder, the Institute's president. Fifty percent of pregnancies in adolescent girls ends in abortion in Spain, according to the Institute, and failure of the morning after pill is "evident," with a direct relationship of the drug's promotion and the increase in the number of abortions. Hertfelder called the Spanish government's policy "erroneous and out-dated," and called for a change in policy regarding the "indiscriminate promotion of the morning after pill among adolescents and of abortion as a solution." According to the IFP, the number of abortions in Spain has more than doubled in the last 10 years, with 97,000 being performed in 2006. In the last four years alone, the number of abortions have increased 35%.
Pope Benedict XVI Tells Uruguay Bishops to Stop Move to Legalize Abortions
Montevideo, Uruguay (LifeNews.com) -- During an audience last week with Uruguay's bishops, Pope Benedict XVI expressed his concerns and prayers that the clergy in the South American country would recognize the dignity of all human life, including the unborn. Last year, the Uruguayan Senate approved legislation that would make abortion legal for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, although the country's president has promised a veto of the bill. Despite the efforts of the local Catholic leaders, poll results from the year prior to the Senate vote showed that a majority of Uruguayans favored the legalization of abortion. Benedict XVI said that he is asking God for "the fruit of establishing a clear awareness in every Uruguayan of the inviolable dignity of every person and a firm commitment to respect and safeguard it without reservations."
Australia Archbishop Denis Hart Hopes to Stop Abortion Law Reform Bill
Melbourne, Australia (LifeNews.com) -- Archbishop Denis Hart of the Archdiocese of Melbourne has issued a pastoral letter in response to the Australian Legislative Assembly's passage of the Abortion Law Reform Bill. The Archbishop called for a Day of Intercession in an attempt to stop the legislation from passing into law, specifically citing the Church's concerns with the legislation. Archbishop Hart called the bill "an unprecedented attack on the freedom to hold and exercise fundamental religious beliefs," pointing out that it "compels a pharmacist or nurse employed or engaged in a public or private hospital or day-procedure center, if directed in writing by a doctor, to administer or to supply a drug to cause an abortion to a female who is more than 24 weeks pregnant," and also "imposes a legal obligation on doctors and nurses, notwithstanding their conscientious objection, to perform an abortion on a female in an emergency where it is deemed that the abortion is necessary to preserve the life of the pregnant woman." Furthermore, the Archbishop explained, the Abortion Law Reform Bill fails to ban partial-birth abortions, to include an informed consent provision, or "to safeguard the health of women by permitting abortions to be performed by doctors who have no qualifications or training in obstetrics." "As one commentator has put it, it is an insidious irony that this coercion of conscience is being carried out in the name of choice," said the Archbishop. "Parliamentarians are being afforded the opportunity to exercise their consciences to remove the right of health professionals to exercise theirs."
New Blood Test in UK Sparks Fears of Abortions on Disabled Unborn Children
London, England (LifeNews.com) -- A new blood test could be available in the next five years that would identify conditions such as Down's Syndrome and cystic fibrosis as early as seven weeks, igniting fears of designer babies and increased numbers of abortions. Great Britain, where researchers announced the new test, already has more abortions than any other Western European nation with over 200,000 a year. Pro-life leaders are concerned that the test, which can also determine the sex of the child five weeks earlier than current tests, would lead to discrimination. "It does not offer any possibility except the termination of the pregnancy," Josephine Quintavalle, of the pro-life campaign Comment on Reproductive Ethics, told the Mail Online. "This is a pursuit for perfection. Having the right sex of a child will become another quest for perfection. We are getting more information than we know how to handle.'"
