A report broadcast Sunday by the Danish TV station DR, using video
recorded by a hidden camera in the Emece clinic in Barcelona, a
clinic which forms part of the CBM group, suggests that the centre
is conducting illegal abortions on pregnant women - from different
parts of Europe - of more than six months.
According to the report, which used video footage taken one month
ago and which was also sent to the EFE news agency, the centre is
systematically and fraudulently using a legal clause in Spain which
allows abortions without time limits in cases of serious mental or
physical risk to the woman.
In the documentary which was broadcast, a Danish journalist, 30-weeks
pregnant, contacted the clinic in Barcelona and, without revealing
her true identity, travelled to the Catalan capital accompanied by
another journalist of the station, who pretended to be her friend,
after the Danish health authorities had denied her an abortion.
In the Barcelona clinic, they met with the director of the
centre, Dr. Carlos Morín, who assured them that he received patients
from countries such as France, Great Britain, Holland, Germany and
even Australia, and that the procedure was legal and carried no
risks for the mother.
Morín explained before the hidden camera that the foetus is
injected with dioxin, a substance which is used to treat cardiac
illnesses, which makes the baby’s heart stop before being extracted
from the uterus.
The female journalist, who alluded to the break-up with her
partner being the reason for the abortion, was asked to fill in a
questionnaire about her physical and mental health.
Then, she is submitted to three psychological tests, being told
that the only way of having a legal abortion [under these
circumstances] is to allege physical or mental problems, in spite of
the fact that she had already stated during an interview that her
health was ‘good’.
The clinic director signalled that the application was only a
matter of ‘bureaucracy’ and, in a later interview, told the pair
that all was in order and the price of the operation would be
€4,000.
Minutes later, the journalist returned to the clinic to reveal
her true identity and was accompanied this time by a television
camera, asking for an interview with Morín, who was now saying that
the operation had not been authorised and that another psychological
test was needed.
He continued to attest, however, that the abortion was completely
legal, before bringing his conversation with the journalist to a
halt after receiving a call on his mobile phone. He then asked the
journalists to leave the clinic.
The TV documentary also features the testimony of a young Danish
woman, whose identity and face were hidden from view, who affirmed
that the same clinic performed an abortion on her in 2004, when she
was 26 weeks pregnant, in exchange for €4,000.
The report also includes testimony from José María Simón
Castellví, president of the Federación Internacional de Asociaciones
Médicas Católicas (FIAMC), and of Jesús Silva, professor of criminal
law at the Universidad Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona.
Simón Castellví denounced the existence of ‘abortion tourism’ in
Spain, which over the past ten years has seen ‘thousands of
Europeans’ travel to Barcelona to undertake an abortion, ‘many’ of
which were illegal, labelling Morín as ‘the king of abortions’.
In the opinion of Silva, the application process ‘was a theatre,
a lie with false tests,’ and that ‘it was fraudulent in Spanish law
and as a whole,’ and should - in the cases of illegal abortions
being carried out - imply prison sentences and the disqualification
from practice of those involved.
barcelonareporter.com
30/X/06
