Madrid - A debate was under way Tuesday in Spain over an
anti-abortion campaign launched by the country's Catholic Church,
which said the rights of plants and animals were protected better
than those of unborn children.
The Bishops' Conference on Monday announced a 'massive
mobilization' against a more liberal abortion law which is being
prepared by Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's socialist
government.
Posters showing a child and a lynx - an endangered species - were
to be put up around the country. 'And me? Protect my life!' the child
says.
Spanish bishops are fiercely opposed to plans by the government to
relax the 1985 abortion law, freeing women from having to justify
their abortions in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy.
More than 100,000 abortions are already performed annually in
Spain, usually on grounds of danger to the mother's psychological
health.
The church also opposes medical procedures such as the genetic
selection of a child whose umbilical cord was used to cure his older
brother of a severe form of anemia recently in Seville.
Relative peace had reigned for about a year between the government
and the church, whose representatives earlier attended massive
rallies against the legalization of homosexual marriage.
The campaign against abortion showed that the way of the church
was 'different from that of society,' Health Minister Bernat Soria
said.
Josep Antoni Duran i Lleida of the Catalan party CiU, however,
defended the church's right to campaign in favour of its ideas.
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