On Saturday, the ninth congress of the Netherlands-based International Federation of Professional Abortion and Contraception Associates (FIAPAC) a pro-choice group, was held in Seville, Spain. FIAPAC promotes “obtaining the right to abortion for every woman,” as well as “freedom of access to all abortion methods in all countries,” according to its mission statement. The conference occurred amid demonstrations organized by hundreds of protestors, according to the Agence France Presse.
Anti-choice protestors of all ages gathered at the demonstration, using the slogan “Seville, capital of life.” The demonstrators shouted “murderers” at the FIAPAC conference’s participants and carried banners with phrases such as “No to abortion, yes to life,” the Agence France Presse reports. Right to Life, an anti-choice organization, commented in a statement, “Seville is not the center for an international meeting of murderers. It is a city full of color and life…We do not want to mingle with butchers, we do not want them at our sites, sharing our tables in bars, with our children in the park or sleeping in the beds that we offer our guests…they are not welcome.”
Since a law liberalizing Spain’s abortion restrictions took effect in early July, anti-abortion protests in Spain have been common. The new law, passed in February, permits abortions up to 14 week’s gestation and up to 22 weeks if the mother’s health is in danger or if the fetus has a serious or incurable illness. Previously, abortion was only legal in cases of rape, fetal malformation, or when the health of the mother was at risk. Nevertheless, the Agence France Presse reports that about 115,000 abortions were performed in Spain last year, prior to the reform, under the legal justification that the pregnancy constituted a risk to the psychological health of the mothers.
