Spain: Region drops order to offer heartbeat before abortion

By RAQUEL REDONDO
Associated Press

MADRID (AP) — A Spanish regional chief has contradicted an announcement by a far-right member of his cabinet that doctors would have to give women a chance to listen to the heartbeats of fetuses before any abortion procedure. The conservative regional president, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, said Monday that Castile and Leon region would allow patients to request those procedures, including four-dimensional ultrasound scans, but they wouldn’t be actively offered by doctors, as previously announced by a prominent member of the regional ruling coalition. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s left-wing government has tried to stop the regional authorities’ plan to go ahead with the overhaul of medical protocols in a bid to defend women’s rights, a main political banner for Spain’s governing coalition.