A body representing Spain’s medical colleges said on Monday that a government minister’s threat to conscientious objection on abortion is “unacceptable, illegal, and unjust.”

The General Council of Official Medical Colleges (CGCOM) was responding to proposed changes to the country’s abortion law announced by Spain’s Equality Minister Irene Montero.

Montero declared that “the right of physicians to conscientious objection cannot be above women’s right to decide,” ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, reported.

The CGCOM, the governing body representing 52 local medical colleges, defended the right to conscientious objection in a July 12 statement.

“Forcing the conscience of physicians in order to expand the number of physicians available in all communities is, in addition to being unconstitutional, a bad solution, which from the perspective of the medical profession would be considered unacceptable, illegal, and unjust,” it said.