Abortions in Spain Have Doubled in Ten Years

That’s what a new government report has found this week:

The number of abortions carried out in Spain has more than doubled in the ten years to 2007, the government said Tuesday. In 1998, a total of 53,847 abortions were performed, compared with 112,138 last year, the health ministry said. It said the rate was highest among women aged between 20 and 24, followed by those aged 25 to 29, according to study . . . . Spain decriminalized abortion in 1985 but only for certain cases: up to 12 weeks of pregnancy after a rape; up to 22 weeks in the case of malformation of the fetus; and at any point if the pregnancy represents a threat to the physical or mental health of the woman.The majority of abortions in Spain take place in private clinics and are justified on the grounds that the pregnancy posed a “psychological risk” for the health of the woman.

Notice the irony of that last sentence. Justifying abortion through the “psychological risk” of the mother doesn’t just create an unlimited license for the procedure. It also subjects women to the psychological damage abortion itself is increasingly shown to create.