Spain: Senate approves new abortion law

Spain: Senate approves new abortion law
Source: http://www.abortionreview.org

03.03.2010 Spain on 24 February approved a sweeping new law that allows the procedure without restrictions up to 14 weeks and gives 16- and 17-year-olds the right to have abortions without parental consent.

The bill brings the country in line with northern Europe is the latest of a series of bold social reforms undertaken by Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who first took office in 2004 and has ruffled feathers among many in the traditionally Catholic country, Associated Press reports.

Carmen Duenas, a spokeswoman for the leading conservative opposition Popular Party in the Senate, accused the government of trying ‘to bring in unrestricted abortion’. ‘The government wants to do away with one of the pillars of Spanish society, which is the family,’ she said. But Senator Leire Pajin, the ruling Socialist party’s No. 3, said the new law ‘paid off an outstanding debt’ to women, offering them a choice and bringing an end to illegal abortions.

Under the previous law, which dates back to 1985, Spanish women could in theory go to jail for getting an abortion outside certain strict limits — up to week 12 in case of rape and week 22 in the case of fetal abnormality. But abortion has been in effect widely available because women can assert mental distress as sole grounds for having an abortion, regardless of how late the pregnancy is. Most of the more than 100,000 abortions carried out each year in Spain were early-term ones that fell under this category, AP reports.

While the new law has been widely reported as a liberalisation of the law, some reproductive choice advocates have cautioned that, in practice, it may restrict women’s access to abortion in later gestations. Before the reforms, although there was no ‘right’ to abortion, the law allowed abortion without time limit in broadly the same circumstances as the British law up to 24 weeks. This meant that doctors prepared to interpret it liberally could, and did, offer access way beyond the 14 weeks that the new law permits. Women from throughout Europe have been known to travel to Spain to have an abortion that would be denied in their home country.

The new bill provides for greater regulation. It permits abortion up to 22 weeks if two doctors certify there is a serious threat to the health of the mother, or fetal malformation. Beyond 22 weeks, it would be allowed only doctors certify fetal malformation deemed incompatible with life or the fetus were diagnosed with an extremely serious or incurable disease.

The new bill was automatically approved when a majority of senators rejected three proposals by conservative parties to have it vetoed, and then rejected a total of 88 amendments, AP reports. It will be published in the state bulletin next month and will take effect four months later.

The part of the new law allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to have abortions without parental consent puts Spain in line with other European countries such as Germany, Britain and France. It was among the bill’s most controversial elements. In the end, the government amended it so that minors must inform their parents or legal guardian if they plan to undergo an abortion, but do not need their permission. They are, however, exempt from this requisite if they can show that fulfilling it would expose them to violence within their family, threats or coercion.

Spanish Senate approves new abortion law. Associated Press, 25 February 2010