The reform of the abortion law of 2023 contemplated the creation of a registry of professionals who, citing their conscientious objection, opposed performing these interventions. The protocol to establish the minimum criteria for this registry had to be approved by the Interterritorial Health Council and will be debated next Monday at the meeting that brings together the Minister of Health, Mónica García, and the health advisors from the different autonomous communities. The text, to which ABC has had access, establishes that only those who directly participate in the process may declare themselves objectors, both in the intervention and in the necessary acts prior to or simultaneous with it, that is, gynecology and obstetrics professionals, of anesthesiology and resuscitation, family doctors, nurses and midwives. The document specifies that other types of health personnel will not be admitted as objectors.
The registry will not be national, but rather each autonomous community must have its own. It will be the professional who makes the request to appear in it, but they may modify or revoke their declaration of conscientious objection at any time. Furthermore, this may be total or partial, that is, health workers may oppose carrying out this type of intervention in any circumstance or do so only in certain cases. For example, a gynecologist could refuse to perform abortions when the intervention occurs during the first 14 weeks of gestation only at the woman’s request, but agree to do so when the termination of pregnancy responds to medical causes such as serious anomalies in the fetus.
According to the document, the records will be used exclusively for human resources management. The intention of the Ministry of Health is to guarantee that all autonomous communities have sufficient personnel so that abortions can be carried out in public health centers. According to 2023 data on voluntary terminations of pregnancy, of the 103,097 that occurred last year, 81.45% were done in private clinics. Even so, the autonomies have agreements with private centers when they do not have enough professionals to carry out this intervention so that abortions are guaranteed.
The Health protocol emphasizes that conscientious objection is “an individual decision” of the professionals involved in carrying out these interventions “which must be expressed in advance and in writing.” Those who are objectors, the text emphasizes, will be objectors in both public and private healthcare. Along these lines, the protocol states that this request for conscientious objection will have to be made “sufficiently in advance” of the scheduled date of the intervention and it will be each community that establishes these deadlines.
Access to records
To declare themselves objectors, professionals must provide information such as their full name, ID, email or center where they work. In point 7, the protocol establishes that these data are “specially protected”, so the purpose of the registry must be “limited” “to the correct organization and management of the service, and cannot be used for a different purpose.” He also insists that there will be no reference to the health worker’s reasons for declaring himself an objector and that it will not be a public record. Thus, the people who can access these lists will also be limited and only those who have powers for the organization and management of the centers will be able to do so.
Furthermore, the data cannot be consulted between different autonomous communities, so if a professional changes his or her workplace to another autonomous community, he or she must re-register in the registry of his or her new destination to be able to refer to his or her conscientious objection.
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