By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
A day after Spain’s Parliament narrowly approved a law easing long-standing restrictions on abortion, the head of the Spanish bishops’ conference said they would take no action against Catholic King Juan Carlos for signing the bill, as he is required to do by law.
“That his majesty the king must sanction this law with his signature is a unique situation,” said Auxiliary Bishop Juan Antonio Martinez Camino of Madrid, conference general secretary. “No other citizen would encounter this,” they said, which means “general principles” cannot be applied, he said.
According to the Catholic News Service (CNS) Bishop Camino made the comments at a press conference following a Feb. 25 meeting of the bishops which was held a day after Parliament voted 132-126 to remove all restrictions on abortion up to the fourteenth week of pregnancy. The bill also extends legal abortion to 22 weeks if the life of the mother is at risk or the baby has “serious malformations” and allows girls as young as 16 to have abortions without parental consent.
Previously, abortions were illegal except for cases of rape (up to 12 weeks) and in cases where the fetus was malformed (up to 22 weeks). Women could also abort at any time if it was determined that the woman was under emotional distress.
However, the bishops say any Catholic members of parliament who voted for the bill have “seriously separated themselves from the Church” and should not receive Communion.
The difference is that the King must sign the bill by law compared to a politician who can choose to vote for or against the bill. “It is different to sanction the law than to vote on it,” Bishop Camino said.
The King is said to be a practicing Catholic, but he recently signed a law permitting homosexual marriage and has approved other anti-family legislation. However, his wife, Queen Sophia of Greece, has publicly stated her opposition to abortion.
The position of the bishop’s conference has not stopped pro-life Catholics from petitioning the King to refuse to sign the law.
“Please, Your Majesty, do not sanction this new holocaust with your signature,” reads an on-online petition that has already garnered more than 57,000 signatures. “Without your signature the law will not go into effect. In this way, the pain and suffering of thousands of women will be avoided and, more importantly, an infinite number of defenseless lives will be saved.”
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