In Italy and Spain, the abortion battle is back

The procedure is legal, but opponents are finding new ways to pressure women and influence elections.
By Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
April 6, 2008

ROME -- The woman was still woozy from anesthesia when Italian police interrogated her shortly after she had had an abortion. Then they confiscated the fetus.

In Spain, police have swept into clinics, hauled away cartons of medical records and questioned dozens of women who had terminated their pregnancies, sometimes showing up at their homes, to their great mortification.

In Italy and Spain, two of Europe's most predominantly Roman Catholic countries, opponents of abortion are finding new ways to challenge laws and use the issue to influence national elections, a generation after most citizens thought the issue was resolved. the rest