The Spanish Government is moving to compile a list of conscientious objectors to abortion in order to ensure terminations can be readily accessed in public hospitals. Critics say the move may lead to pro-life doctors and nurses not being hired in the first place and is therefore an attack on conscience rights.

“That would certainly be an attack on the freedom of the person,” the Archbishop of Santiago de Compostela, Julian Barrio, told Europa Press this week.

He says: “there should not be” a registry of doctors who do not want to perform abortions, “because freedom of conscience is something that must always be respected”.

Similarly, the Archbishop of Pamplona, Francisco Perez, argued that “conscientious objection is a right and a sign of freedom.”