Spain's conservatives have turned abortion into an election issue. Public clinics often refuse to perform abortions - for reasons of conscience. Private clinics do perform them, but women and doctors there are often exposed to protests from abortion opponents. Two Catholic cardinals recently said abortion posed a danger to democracy. Socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has publicly disagreed. But this close to the elections, no one is publicly favoring further liberalization of abortion law.