Tomorrow, 11 women in Bilbao in northern Spain are due to stand triai. Their crime? Eight of them are accused of having had abortion; one of having two of having carried abortions.
Take the case of one of the women accused of abortions. She told the police that she had been helping women since 1970, charging them from 800 to 9,000 pesetas (£5.50 to £64) for an abortion - unless they were poor, in which case the operation was free.
The court prosecutor nothing but generous, demanding six years' imprisonment for each woman conducted.
That makes 60 years in jail. In fact she spent over seven behind bars following her arrest. Refused And why was it necessary for The go on LOHONOR abration are aged from 24 to 2. having All but one is married, with two or children and YCLY incomes. They had asked doctors for contraceptives and had been refused.
The prosecutor months' imprisonment for abortion. As this denial of liberty for avoiding the chains of unwanted motherhood were not enough, the prosecutor is also demanding that the women should be deprived of the right to vote or be elected for public office for a period of 11 years.
No doubt the wizened celibates of the Vatican will have a little chuckle at that. Quite amusing, really, that the denial democratic right. -right to choose - should be met with the deprivation of yet other rights.
No doubt, too, Pope John and his chums don't lose any sleep over the fact that 3,000 women a year in Spain die from illegal abortions.
It so happens that the date set tried to out doing months trial each grotesque for the trial referendum on the Euskadi -the Spanish ment's proposals for devolution in the Basque country — will be held. Since the arrests took place three could be said to be an attempt to divert attention from it.
Feminists are upsetting those plans.
of woman's feminists who occupied the Palace of Justice in Madrid in solidarity with the women on driven out charge. As the Guardian reported it: 'The national police behaved with unusual brutality reminiscent of the days of the Franco regime. One of those assaulted by the