In view of the legislative initiative to shield abortion centers and prohibit, even with prison sentences, the presence of groups of rescuers in their vicinity, no one should remain indifferent. Thus wrote a few days ago in Omnes Javier Segura, teaching delegate in the diocese of Getafe and president of the educational association 'Come and see. Education', with the title To jail for defending life.
As is well known, for years, small groups, in a disorganized but constant way, have been advising women who approach some abortuaries to terminate their pregnancy and eliminate the baby inside them. The question they ask is this or a very similar one: "What do you need in order not to have an abortion?
This is what Dr. Jesús Poveda, promoter of the Rescue School, who has been counseling pregnant women for the last fifteen years, told Omnes yesterday. "Approximately 10 percent of the women we counsel reject abortion and opt for life," he answers Omnes' question.
In addition to his professional work, Jesús Poveda is vice-president of the Federation of Associations for Life of Spain, and presides over the pro-life groups of Madrid, but he specifies that this task of Saturday rescues is "a personal initiative", outside the pro-life associations, whose task is "assistance, training, and denunciation of the current law". Although the Aido law "has a good part," he recalls. And that is the obligation to advise women and give them a few days to look at alternatives, "something that is not fulfilled".
What do you need in order not to have an abortion? It is the same question Michelle heard a few years ago, and she decided to go ahead with her pregnancy, after talking to members of John Paul II Rescuers, at the door of an abortion center. Marta Velarde, its president, has stated that around "5,400 babies have been rescued in these nine years".
You can see Michelle's testimony here.
It took place on the last Sunday of June on the tenth anniversary of the Platform Yes to Life, chaired by Alicia Latorre, and was held as part of the Race for Life organized by the Association of Athletes for Life and Family, chaired by Javier Fernández Jáuregui, in collaboration with Omnes and other institutions.
Freedom of expression
The work of these prayer and pro-life groups has not gone unnoticed, both in political, civil and ecclesiastical spheres. The legislative initiative to penalize people who participate in these counseling tasks is there. Last Thursday, in response to questions from several journalists, the secretary general and spokesman of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, Msgr. Luis Argüello, recalled that these groups pray for mothers, whether they abort or not, that they offer alternatives to the elimination of life and that "if the right to abortion is recognized, freedom of expression must also be recognized".
Bishop Argüello, Auxiliary Bishop of Valladolid, added that "what is really worrying is that it is considered progress to interrupt the progress of a human life" and recalled that these groups "pray and offer alternative help to avoid the elimination of a human life". He also referred to the "significant experience of people who change their decision to abort" thanks to the help of these people and who save, in this way, a life that, as he reminded, "is not a matter of faith, but of science that tells us that there is a new human being, with its own DNA and with the capacity to develop that will come to form the life that already exists".
In the civil field, the Family Forum has published a report in which it notes that "at present there is no public network to help pregnant women in vulnerable situations, nor is the right of pregnant women to be informed of the existence of this network and of the help and support available to them regulated in all types of health care centers".
"These measures -which the Family Forum has been proposing for years to all political parties without exception- have still not been assumed and carried out by the different governments", adds the Forum. "If what is mentioned in the previous paragraph were being effectively carried out by the competent authorities, there would be no reason for the rallies that, in the light of the present Bill, bother so much those who profit from the drama of abortion, in collusion with those who, supposedly flag bearers of the public sector, present initiatives such as the present one to benefit private companies. The present PL consists of a reform of the Penal Code with a clear intention that is merely political, ideological and intimidating, very defective from a technical legal point of view and clearly unconstitutional".
(Private) assistance to pregnant women
In contrast, foundations such as RedMadre, Godmother, Lifeand others, help pregnant women in a thousand ways and means, systematically and for years. And also women with very young children who have just given birth.
In 2019, for example, more than 30,000 women have had recourse to RedMadre Foundation (redmadre.es) "the lack of support for maternity in Spain".
Specifically, there were 31,849 women in vulnerable situations due to their maternity (6,151 more than in 2018), and they did so through the 40 RedMadre associations spread throughout the national territory.
When the foundation is asked how these women came to know of RedMadre's existence, the answer is simple: "through the Internet, social networks, Instagram, etc. That's where our contact information is, and they get in touch with us."
Fundación RedMadre, through its work of accompaniment and support to pregnant women and/or new mothers, "detects that many women who face an unexpected pregnancy want to go ahead, but the difficulties to access the labor market or to develop their professional career, the lack of emotional support, as well as the almost inexistence of maternity assistance from public administrations lead them to seek help from civil society through NGOs such as RedMadre".
Desamparadas
"In fact, the number of women under 30 who ask us for support is increasing every year. Women who have not finished their studies, do not have a stable partner and most of them are unemployed. Women who feel helpless by public administrations in the face of their pregnancy," explains Amaya Azcona, general director of Fundación RedMadre.
The foundation also reports another interesting fact: "89.23 % of the women who were considering abortion went ahead with their pregnancy after receiving help from RedMadre volunteers". Among other data, the foundation reports that 47.23 % were Spanish and 73.57 % were unemployed. In addition, 5.55 % suffered physical or psychological abuse by their partner because of their pregnancy. Forty-seven mothers were referred to foster homes and 70 women requested help for post-abortion trauma.
"RedMadre's work is carried out thanks to its network of volunteers. More than 50 training courses have been given, reaching 1,500 volunteers of all ages and with a very diverse profile: medical professionals, lawyers, social workers, psychologists, teachers, housewives, students and retirees," adds Amaya Azcona.
Out of 10 who ask for support, 9 move on
The number of voluntary terminations of pregnancy (VTP), in official terminology, i.e. abortions, fell by 10.97 % in 2020 compared to the previous year, with a total of 88,269 abortions, according to data from the Spanish Ministry of Health. This breaks the trend of around 100,000 abortions per year in Spain in recent years, with a decrease of around 11 percent. The Ministry of Health has attributed this decrease to the "exceptional situation" caused by the pandemic and points out that the drop has occurred in all the autonomous communities.
With these data, Fundación RedMadre considers that "it is clear that Spain urgently needs a law to support motherhood, which pays special attention to pregnant women with difficulties and ensures that women have all the information and opportunities available to them to freely choose motherhood".
Amaya Azcona, CEO, comments that the experience of her foundation "is that out of every 10 women who ask us for support, 9 go ahead with their pregnancy by receiving the accompaniment they need. That is why we believe that behind the scandalous figure of almost 90,000 women who have had abortions, there are many of them who would have chosen motherhood if they had had access to the support and help they needed".
Accusations...
In the context of initiatives such as that of the Ministry of Equality, which seeks to reform the abortion law so as to put an end to what the current Administration considers to be obstacles that hinder access to abortion in Spain, a few days ago, on September 28, a member of parliament for Más Madrid referred to the Godmother Foundation at the Madrid City Hall, in a derogatory manner, and assured: "like the Godmother Foundation..., that the only thing they do is to prepare a layette for the pregnant woman, with some bottles and diapers,... thinking that with this she (the mother) will survive the day after giving birth.".
Shortly afterwards, Fundación Madrina, an institution founded and chaired by Conrado Giménez, which has been defending women and the most vulnerable children for 21 years, and which has taken in nearly 2 million children, mothers and pregnant teenagers, "...victims of trafficking, violence, prostitution, abuse or social inequality", published a note in which it pointed out:
"We deeply regret that institutions that have been working for decades for the most vulnerable children and mothers are once again introduced into the political debate, in order to hide the serious social reality that we are going through and that the most vulnerable families, especially those with dependent children, are suffering. Therefore, we invite Ms. Carolina Pulido, and all the political force she represents, to learn more about this social reality that she is undoubtedly unaware of, as well as the social work that Fundación Madrina has been doing for more than two decades, and that we now detail. Social work that has been visited by all political forces including Podemos, Ciudadanos and PSOE. All these projects have been carried out with its own resources, since it has not received from the City of Madrid, to date, any help as indicated in his appearance".
Numerous aids
Among other data, before visualizing a wide range of aid, the foundation presided by Conrado Gimenez points out that "during the pandemic there has been no mention of children, and it is true that Fundación Madrina distributes layettes, about 15,000 were distributed last year during the pandemic, delivered to each family's home. The value of each of them is estimated at 700 e, an amount that is beyond the reach of a poor family. Because the Madrina Foundation cares about the children, it does not want them to cost the mothers, so it distributes carts, diapers, household goods, clothes, shoes, blankets, sweatshirts, school supplies, ... Everything that the Administration does not give".
Madrina stresses that "it is an advisor to the United Nations and the European Parliament, fighting for the rights of single-parent families"; "it presents apartments and sheltered residences that take in mothers and children with disabilities, and young women mothers, victims of violence, abuse, rape, prostitution and human trafficking, most of them abandoned by the Administration and by their own partners; and also training, employment and entrepreneurship centers to employ vulnerable families; it has a baby bank that feeds more than 4,000 families a day, distributing more than 20 tons of food and hygiene to children, and to about 20 institutions including Social Services, Social Samur, among others.It also has a baby bank that feeds more than 4,000 families a day, distributing more than 20 tons of food and child hygiene, and about 100 institutions including Social Services, Samur social, among others; the entity serves and welcomes about 78 different nationalities, being 50 % of the women it welcomes Spanish and the rest immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees".
Children and mothers in need
On the other hand, "the foundation provides food and child hygiene to the so-called "hunger queues", thousands of families and children, all of them referred from Social Services, Health Centers, Hospitals, and entities such as Caritas, Red Cross, Doctors of the World, CEAR, among other 100 institutions to which it provides weekly food and baby hygiene, among them, entities of Republican origin and LGTBI collectives. The foundation only sees children and mothers in need".
Madrina also provides shelter in residences and apartments for more than 30 women and children, and has provided housing in rural areas, the so-called "madrina villages", to more than 300 families and nearly 1,000 children, all of them victims of evictions, many of them unemployed by the foundation. However, the entity still has a waiting list of more than 800 vulnerable families at risk of homelessness, and who have been condemned to eat in the "hunger queues" served by the entity.
Another outstanding service provided by Madrina is the "24-hour call center", which was the only telephone number in operation during the pandemic, since all administrative telephones such as 016, 010 and 012 were blocked. In this telephone of the organization, about 350,000 emergency calls have been attended, both health and food and accommodation, reaching up to 15 calls per minute during peak hours.
Finally, the foundation has remained open 24 hours a day during the 2020 pandemic, add those in charge. "We recognize nearly 2,000 volunteers who have given their best wishes to give life and help" to mothers with their children and families who have turned to Fundación Madrina, providing food, accompaniment, transportation, shelter and health care."
Conscientious objections, both to the abortion law and to the euthanasia law, which are the subject of information attention on this portal, have been left out. In the October issue of the Omnes have an analysis of the issue. Just one recent fact. The declarations of the government delegate for Gender Violence, Victoria Rosell, in an interview that some media have titled as follows: "The right to abortion cannot yield to the right to object". More than a symptom.
