Spain liberalises its law on abortion despite strong protests

The Spanish Senate has approved a sweeping new law that, under the guise of women’s rights, allows abortion without restrictions up to 14 weeks and gives 16 and 17-year-olds the right to have abortions without parental consent.

The Spanish Senate has approved a sweeping new law that, under the guise of women’s rights, allows abortion without restrictions up to 14 weeks and gives 16 and 17-year-olds the right to have abortions without parental consent.  Abortions are also allowed in the first 22 weeks of pregnancy if the foetus has a serious or incurable disease.

Despite huge rallies and polls against it, the new law brings the country in line with its more secular neighbours in Northern Europe and it is the latest of a series of Socialist-led reforms undertaken by the Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.

At the end of last year, millions of anti-abortion campaigners protesting against the liberalisation of abortion laws marched through Madrid, in one of the largest demonstrations since anti-war protests in 2003 and 2004.  Civic and religious groups  chartered 600 buses and several planes to bring people in from other cities.

(See the CCFON report)

Former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar and many other well-known public figures had also participated in the march.

Despite the opposition, members of the Socialist Government, including Bibiana Aido, Minister of Equality, Trinidad Jimenez, Minister of Health, and Francisco Caamano, Minister of Justice, celebrated the outcome as ‘a great victory’.

Meanwhile, at the doors of the Senate chamber several anti-abortion groups congregated after last week having delivered more than a million signatures of people opposed to the new Bill.

Speaking for the main opposition conservative Popular Party, Sen. Carmen Dueñas accused the government of ‘imposing free abortion on Spanish society’.

‘The government wants to do away with one of the pillars of Spanish society, which is the family,’ she said.

Bishop Juan Antonio Martinez Camino, the secretary general of the Bishops’ Conference of Spain, is calling for the new law on abortion to ‘be abolished as soon as possible’.

‘Anything that can be done to keep people aware of what is at stake, which is the right to life of the innocent and weak, is welcome, no matter who does it,’ he said.

He said the Church ‘will continue speaking out for the voiceless, and she will support and welcome all movements’ to defend the unborn.

He called the new law ‘a grave step backward in the protection of the inviolable right to life’ that ‘leaves women abandoned’.  Abortion is ‘a tragedy and a crime’, the bishop said, announcing that the Church plans to hold a social awareness campaign on 25 March 2010.

The new law also permits abortion up to 22 weeks if two doctors certify there is a serious threat to the health of the mother, or foetal malformation.

Beyond 22 weeks, it would be allowed only if doctors certify foetal malformation deemed incompatible with life or the foetus were diagnosed with an extremely serious or incurable disease.

Legal abortions in Spain have increased over the years, doubling from nearly 54,000 in 1998 to 112,000 in 2007.

Under the current Socialist government, Spain has also removed any positive mention of religion from the public education curriculum, legalised homosexual ‘marriage’ and made it easier for its citizens to divorce.

Andrea Minichiello Williams, Director of CCFON, said: ‘It is of great sadness that the Government of Spain is moving in the wrong direction and enforcing anti-life laws and policies upon its people.  All human life is worthy of protection and law exists to protect the most vulnerable. Spain has taken a step in the wrong direction. I hope the campaign to repeal the new law is successful’