Spain to proceed with law that will imprison Pro-Life street counsellors
SPAINS Congress of Deputies has approved new legislation that will imprison Pro-Life sidewalk counsellors.
The law that was approved yesterday in a 204 to 144 vote, will now move forward to the Senate.
If it is officially passed as it is expected to, pro-lifers who attempt to help women entering an abortion facility, will now face a jail term.
The penalty for helping women choose life include three months to one year in jail or community service for 31 to 80 days. Pro-lifers who are prosecuted could be prohibited from returning to the abortion facility for up to three years.
It has been reported that a woman may not even have to file a complaint about the presence of peaceful men and women who gather to pray and offer literature to them, in order to be arrested and prosecuted.
“Prayer is not freedom of expression if the end result is to coerce,” a spokesperson for a pro-abortion lobby said. He added however offering support to a woman who is seeking an abortion or praying for a pregnant woman, is not coercion.
Meanwhile, statistics show than 60 per cent of women who have undergone abortions say they were pressured into them. Despite this however, Spanish congress have decided to ride roughshod over truth.
Head of Precious Life, Bernadette Smyth has told of her horror over the move. She said: “It is evident today that people’s rights of freedom of speech and right to assemble are being eroded with each passing day.
“It only becomes an abhorrent act to government when Pro-Lifers stand in the way of abortion providers making obscene profits from vulnerable women facing an unplanned pregnancy.
“Pro-lifers have nothing to gain personally from helping a woman choose life. The abortion industry, however, has a financial interest in ensuring that women feel they have no options other than abortion.
“The reality is that by offering help and support, pro-lifers are actually battling against abortion coercion that comes from parents, partners, and the abortion industry itself.
Mrs Smyth concluded: “Women deserve to know that help exists so they can freely choose life for their babies, and many women have expressed their sincere gratitude to street counsellors who have reached out in support to them.
“Silencing Pro-Lifers means women are more likely to make the choice to abort their children under pressure and without having all of the information available to them.
María Teresa Angulo Romero of the People’s Party said that the proposed law is not about preventing coercion but penalizes “fundamental rights such as freedom of speech or assembly because what underlies is a sectarian limitation of rights because of the ideas of those who exercise them.”
She added: “You don’t want to penalise supposed coercion. If so, your proposal would be unnecessary because the Penal Code already covers coercion. You want to prohibit the right of assembly or free speech where and by whom you don’t like.”