{"id":254215,"date":"2021-10-01T12:42:30","date_gmt":"2021-10-01T17:42:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=254215"},"modified":"2021-09-29T17:51:36","modified_gmt":"2021-09-29T22:51:36","slug":"spain-bill-criminalize-sidewalk-counseling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/spain-bill-criminalize-sidewalk-counseling\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain advances bill to criminalize pro-life sidewalk counseling"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

Spain’s lower house voted on September 21 to consider a bill that would criminalize pro-life sidewalk counseling outside abortion businesses in the country.<\/p>\n

The bill was proposed by the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party in May and was advanced last week by the Congress of Deputies in a vote of 199 to 144. It states that it would criminalize “harassing women going to facilities for the voluntary interruption of pregnancy.” It classifies “harassment” as “approaching women with photographs, model fetuses, and proclamations against abortion … [in which] the objective is for the women to change their decision through coercion, intimidation, and harassment.”<\/p>\n

As reported by the National Catholic Register<\/a>, this would make it illegal for pro-life activists to participate in actively helping women choose life for their babies before going through with a planned or possible abortion. This would include Life Ambulance, a group that offers free ultrasounds to women outside of abortion businesses.<\/p>\n