“The Murcian Health Service has not referred any woman outside the Region or to another country for the voluntary termination of pregnancy since May 2021.” With these words, the Minister of Health, Juan José Pedreño, highlighted this Wednesday in the Regional Assembly that his department “complies with the law” in this matter, in response to a question from the socialist deputy Lara Hernández about abortions for medical reasons and after the 22nd week of gestation.
The parliamentarian accused Pedreño of “lying”, because the SMS – she said – refers all women who decide to abort for health reasons to private clinics. She also questioned the work of at least one of the doctors that make up the clinical committee that studies the cases, “who declared himself anti-abortionist on a television program,” and which, according to Hernández, is evidence of non-compliance with the law.
In addition, he recalled the cases revealed by LA VERDAD in February of two women from the Region who decided to go to clinics in Brussels to end their pregnancies. One had been rejected by the clinical committee of La Arrixaca and in the other the patient decided not to wait any longer for that body’s decision. In her opinion, the “committee has not treated them properly, it has made them dizzy and extended the diagnosis by up to twelve weeks, making them go through indescribable suffering”
Hernández stressed that there are referrals “four hundred kilometers away” and regretted that this situation occurs “due to ideology or beliefs.” «It annoys me that you question the quality and quality of the SMS technicians and doctors, and of those who are part of the clinical committee, made up of professionals of high scientific capacity. They are the ones who determine the criteria according to the law,” Pedreño defended, annoyed by Hernández’s arguments.
After the plenary session, the Ministry reported that the two cases presented by the PSOE in the session, the first “does not comply” with the assumptions that are included in the law for the medical interruption of pregnancy, after evaluating it by the regional scientific clinical committee. The second was “a voluntary decision by the patient without waiting for the conclusions” of the same committee. Regarding this scientific body, Salud assured that it is made up of professionals and “there are no objectors, therefore it conforms to the law.”
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