Shameless and Oblivious as Ever -- Part One of Two

Editor's note. Please send your thoughts to daveandrusko@hotmail.com.

As so often is the case, a reader kindly forwarded me a story--this one appeared in yesterday's New York Times. But as is rarely the case with an abortion story in the Times, the core of the account is remarkably revealing.

The headline is, "Citing Persecution, Spanish Abortion Clinics Go on Strike." You're supposed to feel solidarity with the 40 or so private abortion clinics which perform most of Spain's abortions which went on a five-day strike beginning Tuesday. They're protesting "persecution by anti-abortion campaigners and government inspectors." Well, let's read beyond this first paragraph.

So why have there been "raids by the local authorities that resulted in a dozen arrests in December"? Well, according to reporter Victoria Burnett, all this "followed the arrest in December of Carlos Morín, a gynecologist who ran a group of clinics in Barcelona and who was secretly filmed by a Danish journalist apparently agreeing to her request for an abortion in her seventh month."

The BBC gives more details. "Among those arrested in the raids was Peruvian physician Carlos Morin, who appeared in a television program in which he offered an abortion to an undercover Danish journalist eight months' pregnant [which is different than what the Times reported] for 4,000 euros, or about $5,880." Morín is reportedly in jail.

As mentioned above, it was not just this one example. Reuters news service reported, "Local police in Barcelona last month arrested 13 people, mostly ob-gyns and anesthetists, in the raids, which targeted clinics accused of performing illegal abortions." Some were accused, according to the Associated Press, of performing abortions using falsified medical certificates.

But there's more, much more. Begin by recalling that the number of abortions in Spain has doubled in the last decade to about 100,000 annually.

That's not surprising when you read about the changes in Spain's abortion law since 1985. The three-fold explanation in Burnett's story is that abortion is permissible through the first 12 weeks in cases of rape; the first 22 weeks if there is a "risk of fetal malformation"; but on demand if women "can demonstrate that their mental or physical health is at risk."

Where have we heard THAT before?

Then note that Morin's arrest set off what Burnett describes as a "flurry of news media reports of 'abortion tourism.'" These reports "offered macabre details of late-term abortions at clinics in Barcelona and Madrid. One private television producer released a video, said to have been made in a Madrid clinic, that showed an abortion at 21 weeks."

Shameless (and oblivious) as ever, "Abortion-rights advocates say the law should be more flexible, allowing women to terminate a pregnancy before a certain number of weeks on the basis of social or economic pressures, as is the case in many European countries." Even the most nominal requirement--that a woman's "mental health" will be affected--is too much for the never-enough-abortions-crowd.

We will update you on the situation in Spain as we learn more.

Please send your comments to daveandrusko@hotmail.com.

Part Two