A doctor is to be prosecuted over Spain's 'stolen babies' scandal.

Dr Eduardo Vela is accused of stealing a baby from an "unsuitable" mother in 1969 and giving her to another woman. He is the first doctor of many said to have taken babies from women between 1939 to 1975. Most of the women were thought to have been communists and leftists. 85-year-old Dr Vela is accused of faking documents, staging a birth, and abducting a child. BBC News reports that he has denied any involvement in the scandal. Victims and activists believe that hundreds of thousands of babies were stolen and sold during Gen Francisco Franco's dictatorship. Antonia Barroso of the Anadir (National Association for Irregular Adoption Victims) association has said that up 15 percent of adoptions between the years 1965 and 1990 involved babies taken without their biological parents' consent. It is thought that approximately 300,000 children were stolen during this time. The baby that Dr Vela is accused of abducting in 1969, Inés Madrigal, said that she believes her birth mother was bullied into giving her away. "They told my mother that the biological mother was a married woman who couldn't keep me. She had had an affair while her husband was away," she said. Up to 3,000 'stolen babies' cases are said to have been reported to Spanish authorities in the past 10 years. Feature image via BBC.