Bibiana Aído, Minister for Equality, hit back at the Catholic church's criticism of the abortion law reforms today, saying that it was the church's place to say 'what is a sin, but not what is a crime' and that the government's duty was to create laws for 'the whole of society regardless of their religious beliefs'.

Aído was making specific reference to a speech by Antonio María Rouco, president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, in which he described abortion as 'casting a shadow over humanity' and said that 'we will not come out overcome the economic crisis until we overcome the moral crisis'.

The minister admitted that she was not surprised by the church's position, but maintained that the reform had been approached in a 'calm and measured way' and that it would 'bring Spain into line with neighbouring countries without taking religious criteria into account' but recognised that it was impossible to handle a topic like abortion 'and keep everyone happy'.

Aído underlined the fact that the new law would be 'safer, fairer and more sensible' than the current one, offering legal protection to women who decide to terminate an unwanted pregnancy and to those who carry out the operations.  According to the Minister for Equality, the new law would set limits 'where they are currently lacking', for example in cases where the mother's health is at risk.

The minister hopes to have the bill ready before the summer so that its parliamentary process can begin straight afterwards.