A flotilla of anti-abortion campaigners threatened to gate-crash a “death party” last night and prevent a Dutch “abortion ship” from docking in the Spanish port of Valencia.

About 400 demonstrators gathered at the quayside before the arrival of the Aurora, which offers free terminations while in international waters, circumventing Spain’s strict laws on abortion. A heavy police presence tried to keep the “pro-life” and “pro-choice” demonstrators apart.

After picking up passengers the ship, run by the Dutch “pro-choice” group Women on Waves, will steam out into international waters 12 miles from the shore to escape Spanish jurisdiction.

Although the Aurora is planning to make only one return trip, nevertheless it threatens to rattle the foundations of Catholic Spain, where abortion was legalised only in 1985, and is still severely restricted to urgent medical cases.

The feminist groups backing the Aurora’s mission hope to highlight calls for reform of the country’s abortion law. In Spain, women need doctors’ permission for an abortion and must meet certain criteria. But in international waters, they will be offered abortion on demand.

Outraged by the “deliberate provocation”, anti-abortion campaigners summoned supporters to the quay, and protests are expected today when the ship is due to depart.

The Aurora’s voyage into Spanish waters is the latest flashpoint in an increasingly bitter row in Spain between anti-abortion groups and those campaigning for an update of the current legislation.

The country’s abortion law allows terminations up to 12 weeks in the case of rape, and abortions can be permitted up to 22 weeks in cases of severe foetal malformation. There is no time limit on abortions if there is a risk to the mother’s physical or mental health.

In reality, many women who want to have abortions claim that they will suffer mental health problems if they go through with the pregnancy. They need a psychiatrist to certify that is the case.

Josep Luis Carbonell, a gynaecologist who runs a private practice in Valencia and is to carry out the abortions using pills rather than surgery, told The Times: “We are doing this to ask the Spanish Government and society that women should have the choice if they want to have an abortion. At present this is not possible and this is an affront to their dignity.”

Pilar Bardem, an actress and the mother of the Oscar-winning actor Javier Bardem, said: “We want to stop the persecution of women who want abortions and doctors who carry them out.” By last night six women had asked for terminations.

But ranged against the “pro-choice” campaigners were Valencia’s conservative mayor, “pro-life” groups and Catholic medical practitioners.

Rita Barbera, the Mayor of Valencia and a member of the conservative opposition Popular Party, said the boat’s arrival was a “provocation that has sparked indignation”.

Provida, which opposes abortion, mounted a protest on the quayside and urged boat owners to join a flotilla to stop the boat docking.

José Maria Torres Pons, of Provida, said: “They are manipulating women to make a political point. We want to protect their lives and that of their unborn children.”

The Spanish Association of Catholic Doctors (FAMC) called on the city council to ban the ship from docking.

José Maria Simon, FAMC’s president, said: “This campaign is financed by the abortion industry. This is a killer’s party.” Over the past decade an estimated 100,000 terminations have been carried out in Spain. But about 98 per cent of Spanish women have to go to private clinics because of lingering opposition to abortion in the state health system among doctors and staff.

In some areas, like Navarre in northern Spain, no abortions are performed in public health hospitals. Opponents say that many women abuse the law to have an abortion and do not really face any risk to their mental health.

Some private clinics, like one in Barcelona, have been accused of performing illegal abortions during the late stages of pregnancy.

In scenes reminiscent of attacks on American abortion clinics, some establishments in Spain have been the targets of increasingly violent attacks.

Amid calls for a more liberal abortion law, bringing the country into line with other European countries such as Britain, Spain’s Socialist Government announced last month that it would explore ways to reform the law next year.

A commission of lawyers, doctors and other experts has been appointed to come up with recommendations on how to change the rules.

The Government has said that it favours a reform to bring the law into line with British legislation, which makes abortions freely available up to the 24th week of pregnancy.

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