Francisca Garcia Gallego, a regional director of the Association of Accredited Abortion Clinics, said the strikes will affect 2,000 Spanish women who want to terminate their pregnancies. Nonetheless, the striking clinics will still take in emergency cases, Gallego said.
Abortions in Spain have risen to 100,000 annually. Abortion was allowed in 1985 for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy for rape victims and first 22 weeks if the fetus has a risk of malformation. It is allowed at any point during the nine-month pregnancy if the mental or physical health of the mother and baby are at risk.
The clinics are stopping operations to protest the increasing number of rallies against abortion led by pro-life groups and raids by local authorities in December on illegal operations of some clinics.
The crackdown on abortion clinics was spurred by the arrest of gynecologist Carlos Morin, who was caught on video by a Danish news crew offering to perform abortion on a seven-month pregnant journalist. Morin, who operates several abortion clinics in Barcelona, is in jail.
Gallego insisted illegal abortions are rare and that 90 percent of abortions were done during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.
The strike will revive a national debate on abortion, which the government of incumbent Spanish president Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is trying to avoid as it approaches elections in March. Zapatero said he is open to discuss with stakeholders how the 1985 law can be updated, but he stressed abortion is not on his party's platform.
