Gynecologists in Spain Choose Jail Over Performing Abortions

Teresa Neumann (August 27, 2009)
"We doctors are not soldiers, nor policemen, nor executioners. There is no civil disobedience in the refusal to kill a human being, but rather the fulfilling of our professional obligation."

(Madrid, Spain)—Spain's Minister of Justice, Francisco Caamano, has threatened to penalize conscientious objectors—including those who are against abortion—as disobedient.

In response, Dr. Esteban Rodriguez, spokesman for the organization Right to Life (Derecho a Vivir) in Spain, said, "We are willing to go to jail rather than following a criminal law...We will not kill our patients, nor will we commit a crime against the public health deliberately harming the heath of women, no matter how much the Minister of Justice threatens us and abuses his power."

"We doctors are not soldiers, nor policemen, nor executioners," he added. "There is no civil disobedience in the refusal to kill a human being, but rather the fulfilling of our professional obligation."

According to a Catholic News Agency report, Rodriquez was also quoted as warning, "We find the totalitarian intentions of the Ministry of Justice, in conjunction with those of Equality, to be highly troubling. If the former Minister of Justice stirred things up with officials in the judiciary, this one is going to accomplish the same thing with medical professionals."