Tag Archives: Country: Spain

Turtle Bay and Beyond: After the passage of Spain’s liberal abortion law in 2010 the government began subsidizing abortion on demand, providing it at no cost to the mother.

CNN.com: Spain’s best-known judge will be suspended for 11 years from the bench after his conviction Thursday for improperly ordering wiretaps while investigating a financial corruption case, the nation’s Supreme Court ruled.

Catholic Culture: The nation’s constitutional court has not yet ruled on an appeal that claims the 2005 law is unconstitutional.

LifeSiteNews.com: rotesters demonstrating against abortions being carried out in Barcelona-area Catholic hospitals were attacked by an angry mob pro-abortion counter-demonstrators, some of whom reportedly threw rocks and trash, as well as obscene insults.

News from The Associated Press: Spain’s new justice minister says he will reform the country’s abortion law to make parental permission obligatory for 16- and 17-year-olds looking to end pregnancies

CNBC: Standard & Poor’s will cut the credit ratings of Italy, Spain and Portugal by two notches and downgrade France and Austria by one notch, a French newspaper said Friday, without citing its sources.

LifeSiteNews.com: A campaign waged by homosexuals in Spain to suppress a book about reparative therapy for homosexuality has backfired, generating media coverage that has drawn new attention to the formerly ignored work.

Turtle Bay and Beyond – International Law, Policy, and Institutions: It was predictable that Spain’s parliamentary elections last November would end in victory for Spain’s conservative People’s Party after the abject failure of the Spanish Socialist Party in combating rising unemployment and languid economic growth during the economic crisis.

LifeSiteNews.com: Use of the abortifacient morning-after pill in Spain has risen by 83% in 2010, the first full year of over-the-counter availability of the dangerous drug, according to a report by ANSAmed news service.

World Congres of Families on the Christian Newswire: Spain’s Popular Party won a historic conservative victory in Sunday’s election and the ruling Socialists suffered their worst defeat in 30 years.

CSMonitor.com (includes video): Spaniards handed the conservative Popular Party a historic landslide victory and the incumbent Socialist Party its worst defeat in history in this weekend’s general elections, highlighting their overwhelming dissatisfaction with the status quo and a demand for new leadership that could help the country climb out of its worst economic crisis in decades.

Catholic Culture: The leader of Spain’s opposition party–who is favored to win general elections–may move to reverse the legal approval of same-sex marriage and the decriminalization of abortion.

LifeSiteNews.com: Despite orders from Cardinal Archbishop Lluís Martínez Sistach and continuing protests, Barcelona’s Holy Cross and Saint Paul (Santa Creu i Sant Pau) Hospital continues to do abortions, according to Rev. Custodio Ballester, a Barcelona priest who recently discussed the matter with a member of the hospital’s board of directors.

Christian Newswire: A judge dismissed the case against a homeschool family in southern Spain that was facing a possible order to send their son back to school. “This is an important victory for the González family and homeschoolers in Spain,” said Michael Donnelly, Director of International Relations at the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA).

HSLDA: The González family, who reside near Alicante, Spain, were giving thanks to God and to HSLDA after a judge dismissed their case this week. The family were facing a possible order to send their child back to school after prosecutors brought the case over homeschooling. HSLDA filed a brief and spearheaded an international petition for the family.

The Independent: A small town on the Spanish resort island of Mallorca has banned women from wearing burkas or face-covering Islamic veils in public places, even though only two women living there are known to do so.

PressTV: A northeastern Spain municipality with a 40-percent Muslim population has reportedly banned the Muslim call to prayer also known as Azan.

LifeSiteNews.com: The bishop of Terrassa, in the Catalonia region of Spain, is maintaining his silence in the face of the pro-abortion and pro-contraceptive policies of Catholic hospitals in his diocese, according to Fr. Custodio Ballester, a Barcelona priest who is leading protests against the institutions.

NZ Herald News: Spanish police have foiled plans by 100 gays and lesbians to stage a kiss-in on the route the visiting Pope Benedict XVI took through Madrid, blocking the protesters before they could meet up.

LifeSiteNews.com:
Spain’s government is systematically violating the conscience rights of health care workers on abortion, says a group of legal experts that is now taking action to restore those rights.

Religion Clause: In Spain, a Catholic member of Parliament, Juan Cotino, provoked some criticism when he insisted on taking his oath of office using a crucifix. CNA yesterday reported

LifeSiteNews.com: Over eight thousand Paraguayans have joined themselves to a Facebook page with a simple message: Spain’s pro-abortion “Secretary of Equality” isn’t welcome in their country.

Yahoo News: Spain’s ability to meet deficit reduction targets was thrown into doubt on Monday after voters angry about austerity and the EU’s highest unemployment rate gave the ruling Socialists a fierce drubbing in local elections.

Telegraph: A Romanian couple have been arrested in southern Spain for trying to sell their baby to passersby.

AP: “A court has barred atheists from holding a march on Holy Thursday, saying that would be offensive to Spanish Catholics who mark Easter with processions of their own.”

Islamist Watch: Though France is the pace setter, efforts to impose burqa bans, both broad and narrow, press on across the West. The following is a quick and by no means exhaustive update on recent attempts . . .

The Telegraph: A Spanish GP who opposes abortion has been refused the status of “conscientious objector” in a landmark ruling in Spain.

FRC Event: However, Rodriguez Zapatero is not exactly an anomaly in the twenty-first century. Quite the contrary, in fact. He shares a common project with thinkers and politicians who are working in other countries to introduce an archetype of society similar to that proposed by Zapatero. They are the secularists, relativists, radical feminists, abortionists, representatives of the homosexual lobby and totalitarians of all stripes and colors. They have gained considerable ground in recent decades.

LifeSitenews: “An estimated 150,000-plus pro-lifers gathered to celebrate life and protest a new abortion law in Madrid on Sunday. Hundreds of others marched in over 80 Spanish cities, including Barcelona, Oviedo, Zaragoza and Las Palmas, and internationally on March 25 as part of recognition for the International Day of the Unborn Child.”

AndaluciaEduca (Google Translation): A total of 371 Spanish have sued the state before the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg for “violation of fundamental rights in respect of objection to the subjects of Education for Citizenship and Human Rights.” Professionals for Ethics, which has submitted the claims along with Alliance Defense Fund, stated that the applicants, conscientious objectors to EPC, “allege the violation by the Spanish state of several articles of the European Convention on Human Rights . . . ”

CNA (Google Translation): The Spanish platform Professionals for Ethics (PPE), which has filed claims with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), an entity specializing in the defense of human rights, has indicated that the applicants, EPC conscientious objectors ” allege a violation by the Spanish state of several articles of the European Convention on Human Rights. ”

Hazteoir.org (Google Translation): Recalling that the lawsuits were filed by Professionals for Ethics and Alliance Defense Fund , with legal assistance from the European Centre for Law and Justice , the information in A. Matthew states that the Spanish families who have appeared before the ECHR “argue that Spain has violated several articles of the European Convention on Human Rights : right to privacy of minors (art. 8), freedom of thought, conscience and religion children and their parents (art. 9); right of parents to educate their children according to their convictions (Article 2 of Protocol I) and non-discrimination (art. 14).

Europapress.es (Google translation): Professional ethics, has filed claims with aa Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), an entity specializing in the defense of human rights, has indicated that the applicants, conscientious objectors to EPC, “allege the violation by the Spanish state of several articles of the European Convention on Human Rights (right to privacy of minors, freedom of thought, conscience and religion of children and their parents, the right of parents to educate their children according to their convictions; and non-discrimination). ”

LavozLibre (Translation from Spanish by Google): “Families objectors to Education for Citizenship ( EPC ) does not give up their struggle. Although in Spain the Supreme Court has ruled against their interests, they continue their battle in Strasbourg where the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and accumulated 371 lawsuits against the Spanish for “violation of fundamental rights.” . . . Demands, by Professionals for Ethics and Alliance Defense Fund , argue that Spain has violated several articles of the European Convention on Human Rights . . . ”

Associated Press: “A Spanish association of people searching for lost children or parents filed a petition Thursday with the attorney general to investigate allegations that newborns were stolen from their mothers and sold to other families for decades, including as recently as the mid-1990s.”

Associated Press: “A court in the northeastern Spanish region of Catalonia has suspended a ban by the city of Lleida on face-covering Islamic veils in municipal buildings.”

Catholic News Agency: “The association Professionals for Ethics in Spain announced that 3,000 Spaniards have written to the country’s Minister of Health, Leire Pajin, demanding that she respect the right of health care workers to object to abortion and euthanasia.”

Yahoo (AFP): “The Spanish city of Barcelona will erect a monument to gays, lesbians and transgendered people who have been persecuted and repressed ‘throughout history’, it announced Thursday.”

Typically Spanish: “The Partido Popular leader, Mariano Rajoy, is now saying that before overturning gay marriage legislation in Spain he will wait to see what the Constitutional Court decides over the appeal placed to it by his party. Rajoy says he will also see what the people think before eliminating the law which allows couples of the same sex to get married.”

Pajamas Media: “Consider the case of the student at the Menéndez Tolosa school in Cadiz who this week asked his geography teacher to stop discussing ham in class because it was disrespctful to him as a Muslim. It should be noted that the teacher, José Reyes Fernández, was not mocking the Koran’s prohibition against eating ham. What was so offensive to the student was Fernández’s use of the Granada town of Trevélez as an example of a cold moutain climate conducive to the curings of hams.”

Spero Forum: “The Right to Life (Derecho a Vivir) of Spain’s southern region of Andalucía denounced the apparent increase in the number of abortions of children thought to be handicapped or deformed. The group expressed the fear that a eugenic policy was arising in Spain that would lead to the extermination of the handicapped.”

Hudson New York: “The three cables, all of which are from the US Embassy in Madrid, say that Catalonia has become ‘a prime base of operations” for Islamic terrorists; and thanks to uncontrolled immigration the region, it now has a “large Muslim population susceptible to jihadist recruitment.’”

AFP: “Spain’s socialist government will approve a draft law in March 2011 on end-of-life care that will allow people with incurable diseases to “die with dignity”, the deputy prime minister said Friday.”

LifeSiteNews: “Stung by plummeting poll numbers and stark criticisms by Pope Benedict XVI during his recent national visit, Spain’s socialist prime minister Jose Luis Zapatero is defending some of his most controversial policies, including legalizing abortion on demand during the first fourteen weeks of pregnancy, and institutionalizing homosexual ‘marriage.’”

Catholic News Service: “Reflecting on his recent trip to Spain, Pope Benedict XVI spoke of the need to support marriage and family and for dialogue between religious, political and economic spheres to encourage a just society in Europe.”

LifeSiteNews: “According to Europa Press, the judge occupying the seat of the Fourth Court of Instruction of Cordoba ruled that the incursion into the cathedral, which culminated in an assault on several guards and a policeman, was merely a ‘public disorder’ and was not intended to offend anyone’s religious sentiments.”

The Oklahoman (RNS): “Pope Benedict XVI denounced abortion, same-sex marriage and the absence of religion in public life during a weekend (Nov. 6-7) visit to Spain, a country he called the ‘focal point’ of tensions between faith and secularism in Europe.”

Seattle Post-Intelligencer (AP): “Spain’s Socialist government has found a new place to push for gender equality, seeking to erase all vestiges of male bias from the country’s double-barreled last names . . . under a bill presented to Parliament, if a couple does not specify an order or cannot agree on one, a child’s last names would be assigned in alphabetical order.”

Herald Sun (AFP): “Many children with Down Syndrome are being eliminated because of abortion, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Church in Madrid said ahead of a weekend visit by Pope Benedict XVI.”

EU Observer: “The gay and lesbian community in Barcelona is preparing a two-minute kissing session in front of Pope Benedict XVI to express their ‘discontent’ over the anti-gay stance of the Catholic Church.”

The Reader: “The president of the Partido Popular, Mariano Rajoy, has refused to say if he is ‘committed’ to keeping the gay marriage law if elected Prime Minister in the next general election, as he says he is not sure if it is ‘constitutional.’”

RiaNovosti: “The head of the Russian Orthodox Church has decried gay relationship “propaganda” in Spanish secondary school textbooks.”

LifeSiteNews: “According to Spanish Equality Minister Bibiana Aído, unborn human children are not human beings.”

Eugene Volokh writing at The Volokh Conspiracy: “This apparently happened in July, but I only heard about it a few weeks ago. Here is part of a summary from an advocacy group, the European Centre for Law and Justice: . . . ‘The media group was fined 100,000 Euros for airing a promotional advertisement in defense of traditional family.’”

Boston.com (AP): “Labor unions are preparing what they say will be a march of 100,000 workers on European Union institutions in Brussels on Wednesday, as well as a general strike in Spain to protest the budget-slashing plans and austerity measures of governments seeking to control debt.”

Europa Press [modified Google translation]: “The justice minister, Francisco Caamaño, on Tuesday defended the ‘full’ constitutionality of the Law of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy, although [he indicated] that the Constitutional Court ‘will have the final word on the matter.’”

Typically Spanish: “The judge in First Instance Court 15 in Valencia has decided to annul the entry made in the Consular Civil Registry in Los Angeles, by a Spanish gay male married couple who were registered as the parents of twins. The twins were born legally in the United States by a surrogate mother.”

Catholic News Agency: “Spain’s Health Minister, Trinidad Jimenez, attributed the decline in the unofficial number of first-time abortions to the legalization of the morning-after pill. According to the newspaper La Razon, Jimenez said abortions have dropped by more than 3,000 since 2008. Hertfelder called that claim a ‘lie.’ ‘Perhaps there are fewer surgical abortions,’ he said, ‘but chemical abortions, like those caused by the pill, are on the rise.’”

Times of India: “A Spanish discotheque called Mecca which has angered Muslims will change its name, a Muslim representative said on Thursday in the southern city of Murcia.”

Christian Science Monitor: “[Cordoba's] Islamic period and longstanding arguments about its meaning – a symbol of tolerance and hope or an expression of an expansive and aggressive faith? – is an ancient reflection of the current US back and forth over mosques and their meanings, driven by the controversial project, now called Park51 after the project’s location two blocks from the old World Trade Center.”

Euro Weekly: “Alberto Linero Marchena, married to a gay partner, claimed last Monday that he was expelled from the Air Force after two years of ‘threats, abuse and propositioning’. Linero was stationed at the Moron de la Frontera base in Sevilla but has been on psychiatric sick leave since November 2009.”

Jaen Journal [Google translation]: “Jaén province, Andalusia [has the second highest number] of conscientious objectors [to performing an abortion]. More than seventy professionals are a part of this record that has the College of Physicians. The figure is expected to grow.”

ABC [Google translation]: “The Secretary for Equality Policies of the PSM, Carmen Toledano, said today that his party ‘is being vigilant’ with the Community of Madrid in the development of the implementation of the Health Law Sexual and Reproductive Health and the Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy. Through a note, Toledano has assured that ‘any violation or irregularity will be brought to the Ministries of Health and Equality and Social Policies.’”

“The building was begun in approximately AD 600 as the Christian Visigothic church of St. Vincent.”

The Economist: “Among Europe’s historically Catholic lands, France is an outlier. Its leap into modernity took the form of a secular revolution; that differs from places like Ireland or Poland, where church and modern nationhood go together. Things are different again in Bavaria or the southern Netherlands, where the church inspires local pride; or in Spain, where Catholicism is at issue in an ideological war. But in many European places where Catholicism remained all-powerful until say, 1960, the church is losing whatever remains of its grip on society at an accelerating pace. The drop in active adherence to, and knowledge of, Christianity is a long-running and gentle trend; but the hollowing out of church structures—parishes, monasteries, schools, universities, charities—is more dramatic.”

LifeSiteNews: “Spain’s socialist government has fined the Intereconomia television network 100,000 euros (130,000 USD) for running a series of advertisements that it claims ‘attacks the dignity’ of homosexuals.”

LifeSiteNews: “Fernando Ferrín Calamita, a Spanish judge who was fined and removed from the bench for failing to grant an adoption to a homosexual couple, has now been ordered to return almost €100,000 (130,000 USD) in pay that he received while he was suspended from his duties and awaiting the outcome of his trial.”

Catholic News Agency: “Next month, former Judge Fernando Ferrin Calamita will be forced to pay the Spanish government $127,000 for denying a lesbian couple’s request to adopt a girl. … In Ferrin’s ruling he ordered a report be obtained from experts on the consequences the adoption would have on the girl’s development. In December of 2009, the Supreme Court suspended him, fined him $919 and ordered him to pay the couple $7,661.”

Catholic News Agency: “The Institute for Family Policy issued a report this week showing that Spain has the highest rate of divorce in Europe, with more than 110,000 cases taking place each year.”

AolNews.: “A week after Spain’s prime minister angered many of the country’s newspaper publishers by calling for a ban on lucrative prostitution ads, one of the few national dailies that refuse to take such ads has launched a three-day front-page investigation linking the ads to sex traffickers.”

Spiegel Online: “Many believe that those who hide their faces are rejecting Western values along with integration and participation in the society in which they live. And, worst of all, those who hide their faces reject Europe’s most precious birthright: Respect for the individual. … According to a survey by the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project, based in Washington, a clear majority of Germans, French, Spanish and British all support a ban. Most Americans however would reject such a ban. Yet do the majority of citizens have the inherent right to see the faces of their fellow citizens? Are people obliged to participate in society? Is a ban really necessary for security reasons — or do current bans on covering the face fulfill these requirements?”

Associated Press: “Spain’s foreign minister predicted Wednesday that Cuba’s release of dozens of political prisoners could eventually lead to a thaw in U.S. relations and the lifting of a decades-old embargo against the Communist-run island.”

Associated Press: “Spain’s Parliament has rejected a proposal to ban women from wearing in public places Islamic veils that reveal only the eyes. The proposal was debated late Tuesday; 183 lawmakers opposed the ban, 162 lawmakers voted for it and two abstained.”

LifeSiteNews: “The Chilean Chamber of Deputies has issued a ringing condemnation of Spain’s new abortion law, which removes all penalties for abortions up to the 14th week of gestation and permits adolescent girls to obtain abortions without their parents’ consent.”

Associated Press: “Spanish lawmakers will debate barring burqas in public, joining other European countries considering similar moves on the grounds that the body-covering garments are degrading to women, the leading opposition party said Sunday.”