Spanish Government Set To Tighten Abortion Law

abortion law in Spain

The government of Spain has approved draft legislation that would only allow abortions in a narrow range of medical and legal circumstances, reversing a more liberal policy it inherited from the previous government.

The government wants to scrap a 2010 law, adopted under a Socialist government, that gives women unimpeded access to abortion in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy.

The new law would only allow women to terminate their pregnancies in cases of rape or serious danger to the mother’s physical or mental health.

Malformation of the foetus would no longer be a reason to abort.

Another part of the proposed law would prevent girls aged 16 or 17 years from getting an abortion without their parents’ consent.

“Life that has been conceived and has not been born incarnates a fundamental value,” Justice Minister Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon said.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s People’s Party is expected to pass the law with its absolute majority in parliament.

The government’s plans have sparked the wrath of women’s rights advocates and of the Socialist opposition, which pledged to use all available means to block the measure.

The draft law would undermine women’s freedom of decision and “add to their suffering without any justification,” Socialist representative Elena Valenciano said.