Spanish government wants to create blacklists of doctors who refuse to perform abortions

MADRID (OSV News) -- Spain's socialist government is pushing for regional "blacklists" of doctors who object to performing abortions, sparking backlash from medical and Catholic leaders.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is also attempting to enshrine abortion in the constitution, following what France decided in March 2024.

Sánchez sent a letter to the regional presidents of Asturias, Aragon, Madrid and the Balearic Islands -- governed by conservative parties -- urging them to launch a registry of conscientious objectors to abortion.

"No one can be forced to exercise their right to conscientious objection if they are not registered," said José Antonio Díez , general coordinator of the National Association for the Defense of the Right to Conscientious Objection, or ANDOC, told Alpha y Omega Catholic media.

"No matter what the prime minister says, the right to object is a constitutional right. Who can order private citizens to register in a registry that not even the Constitutional Court requires as a condition? From that point on, everything is just gimmicks and tricks," Díez said.

According to the Spanish newspaper ABC, a government-demanded registry is a list that all autonomous communities must maintain, including the names and surnames of all professionals who do not wish to do so due to conscientious objection even if "their specialty should be used to perform abortions."

The prime minister threatened that if the lists are not available within three months, "the appropriate legal mechanisms will be activated to enforce their compliance."

"Why don't they create a list of doctors who want to perform abortions and euthanasia, which would be the most practical option? These registers of objectors they want to create are blacklists to professionally exclude doctors who want to exercise their right to conscientious objection," said Eva Martín, president of ANDOC, as cited by Alpha y Omega.

According to a new Spain-wide regulation, public clinics must guarantee abortions.

Sánchez gave the regional governments concerned a deadline of three months to implement the law. "Respecting the conscience of medical professionals must never be an obstacle to women's healthcare," he argued.

Abortion rates are on the rise in Spain, with the country's Health Ministry data for 2023 listing a total of 103,097 abortions, representing an increase of 4.8% compared to the previous year, when 98,316 were performed; and an 8.7% increase since 2014.

"We are talking about a rate of 12.22 infanticides per 1,000 women between 15 and 44 years of age, a figure worryingly close to the all-time high set in 2011," Alpha y Omega said in a 2024 editorial. "In 2022, that same rate was 11.68, and 10 years ago, it was 10.46."

Meanwhile, the Madrid City Council approved a proposal to make it mandatory for women seeking medical care at various municipal medical centers to be informed about post-abortion syndrome.

Praising the decision, Bishop César García Magán of Toledo, secretary general of the bishops' conference, said that "the bishops' position against abortion is clear, because (abortion) represents an attack on human life in the womb."

Addressing questions about the post-abortion syndrome, he said that "the church's initiatives to support women who have had abortions confirm that it certainly exists," giving an example of a case he knew personally where "there was an abortion and the mother suffered terribly."

In the end, "a mother is aware that there is someone in her womb, not something," Bishop Magán said Oct. 2, a day after the Madrid City Council mandated women seeking medical care be warned about consequences of aborting a child.

"The debate is whether it is human life or not, which it is," the bishop said, therefore "abortion is the elimination of a human life, and that cannot be a right. For that to be the only solution is neither logical nor appropriate. We must help people who do not want to have an abortion."

In recent years, Spanish conservatives have repeatedly tried to overturn a liberal abortion law passed by the socialist José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero government in 2010 -- only to see the Constitutional Court confirming the legality of the time limit regulation in a 2023 ruling.

According to the law, abortions remain optional until the 14th week of pregnancy in Spain. This period can be extended to 22 weeks if there is a risk to the woman's health or there are indications of serious disabilities of the unborn child.

In 2023, 16-year-olds were allowed to have an abortion without their parents' consent.

If the socialist government succeeds in its attempt to include a right to abortion in the constitution, Spain would be the second country in the world to have such a status after France.

Experts point out however that such a constitutional amendment would require a three-fifths majority in the parliament, which would be impossible to achieve due to opposition from the Partido Popular and Vox conservative parties.