Madrid chides Rome on 'pressure agst abortion rights'

(ANSA) - ROME, APR 17 - A Spanish minister on Wednesday criticised the Italian government's reported plans to allow pro-life groups into abortion clinics saying this would put undue pressure on a woman's right to choose.
    "Allowing organised pressure against women who want to interrupt a pregnancy means undermining a right recognised by the law," said Ana Recondo, Spanish minister for equality.
    "It is the strategy of the far right: to threaten to strip rights, to rein in parity between women and men," she said on X.
    Italy's Pro Vita & Famiglia pro-life and family group said Tuesday it would not enter the abortion consultancies, where women receive certificates to have an abortion, even though the government was planning to allow them to.
    The government plans have sparked the ire of women's and abortion groups as well as liberal political parties.
    Abortion has been legal in Italy since 1974 but it is hard to get in practice with almost half the country's doctors conscientious objectors on moral or religious grounds, rising to almost 90% in some regions.
    photo: a pro-abortion rally (ANSA).