Doctor cleared of illegal abortions – Barcelona, Spain News

A DOCTOR accused of carrying out illegal abortions was acquitted by the Barcelona high court.

Peruvian Carlos Morin and 10 patients faced prison terms totalling 300 years if found guilty, but the court concluded that there was insufficient evidence against them.  “They believed falsehoods. I was a scapegoat,” Morin said on leaving the courtroom.

The case dated from 2006 when Catholic group E-Cristians lodged a formal complaint against Morin.  He had performed abortions outside the legal time limit and without psychiatrists’ reports beforehand, decided the Public Prosecution Department following an investigation. 

Three ultra-Catholic groups and the Barcelona Medical Association were represented as the private accusation when the case reached court.

The court found no evidence of clients who were 29 weeks pregnant, as E-Cristians claimed.  Ultrasound scans found at the clinic demonstrated that none of the pregnancies exceeded the legal 22-week limit, the tribunal decided.

Neither could Morin have altered them, the court decided, as he lacked the necessary expertise.

Three key witnesses also retracted their evidence against Carlos Morin.

All the terminations were carried out with the women’s “consent and express request” in authorised clinics by qualified staff, the tribunal ruled. 

Listening to their evidence was “heartrending” the judges said, but essential to reaching a verdict.

E-Cristians has already decided to appeal the sentence which it described as “ideological” and “a scandal.”