The president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference and archbishop of Valladolid, Monsignor Luis Argüello, has denounced the Ministry of Health’s project to facilitate pharmacological abortion in Primary Care centers. The prelate has warned that the change in procedure does not alter the reality of abortion: “The method may seem cleaner, but the result is the same: ending the human life that is developing in its mother’s womb.”
Argüello made these statements through his X account, coinciding with the final day of the public consultation opened by the Ministry of Health to modify the regulations governing the authorization of healthcare centers and the provision of voluntary termination of pregnancy.
“Today marks the deadline for the consultation on the Health Ministry’s project (!) that aims to facilitate pharmacological abortion in Primary Care,” the archbishop stated, concluding his message with an affirmation: “Yes to life.”
Health Ministry seeks to facilitate pharmacological abortion in Primary Care
The Ministry of Health opened a public consultation on October 1 to amend two royal decrees and allow pharmacological abortion to be performed in health centers.
The proposal includes explicitly incorporating the indication, prescription, and follow-up of this procedure, as well as care for possible complications, among the functions of Family Planning units. These actions would fall under the responsibility of specialists in Obstetrics and Gynecology or Family and Community Medicine.
The reform would affect Royal Decree 1277/2003, which establishes the general framework for the authorization of healthcare centers, and Royal Decree 831/2010, concerning the guarantee of quality care in the provision of abortion.
The Ministry considers that current requirements are designed primarily for surgical procedures and need to be adapted to the characteristics of pharmacological abortion during the early weeks of gestation.
The department led by Mónica García also plans to establish specific conditions for accrediting Primary Care centers that offer this service.
Read also: “Whatever you decide, everything will be fine”: Health Ministry turns abortion into absolution
The Government also intends to modify the use of mifepristone
The initiative was announced on September 28 by the Minister of Health, Mónica García, during an event held to mark the International Day of Abortion.
García explained at the time that the Government intends to explicitly include pharmacological abortion in the common portfolio of Primary Care services, so that women can access this procedure from their health centers when it is appropriate for their clinical situation.
To this end, the Ministry plans to initiate the necessary procedures to modify the technical data sheet of mifepristone, one of the medications used in pharmacological abortion, with the aim of allowing its use outside the strictly hospital setting.
The minister defended the measure as a way to reduce travel and facilitate access to the service in the public health system.
According to data released by the Ministry itself, in 2024 nearly eight out of ten abortions performed in Spain took place in private centers.
Conscientious objection is also included in the reform
The project includes organizational measures to reconcile the individual exercise of conscientious objection by healthcare professionals with the provision of abortion in Primary Care centers.
The Ministry maintains that these mechanisms must allow the exercise of conscientious objection without causing delays in women’s access to the procedure.
The proposal is still in an early stage. The public consultation period ends this Tuesday, October 20, after having been open since the beginning of the month. Following this phase, the Government will need to continue drafting and processing the regulatory text.
Argüello insists on defending human life
The reaction of the president of the Episcopal Conference adds to his previous statements on abortion and the need to defend human life from conception.
Last March, during an informative breakfast organized by La Razón, Argüello maintained that the defense of life is not an exclusively Christian issue, but concerns the recognition of the dignity of every human being.
The new Health Ministry initiative also comes at a time when the Government is promoting other regulatory changes related to abortion, including the regulation of the information that must be provided to women before the procedure and the composition of clinical committees.
With his message this Tuesday, Argüello has focused his criticism on the very nature of abortion, warning that facilitating its performance through medication in health centers does not, in his view, change its consequences for human life in gestation.