Madrid (EFE)
The reform, which introduces innovative measures, such as sick leave due to disabling menstruation, maintains the deadlines set by law in 2010 and endorsed by the Constitutional Court, with which abortion will continue to be free during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy.
Exceptionally, the pregnancy may be interrupted until week 22 when there is a serious risk to the life or health of the pregnant woman or risk of serious anomalies to the fetus. Then it will only be possible when fetal abnormalities incompatible with life or an extremely serious and incurable disease confirmed by a clinical committee are detected.
These are the axes of the project promoted by the Ministry of Equality, which will see the light of day with the opposition of the PP and Vox:
The reform of the abortion law that Congress definitively approves this Thursday seeks to guarantee the performance of voluntary interruptions of pregnancy in public health centers and eliminates the requirement of parental authorization for minors under 16 and 17 years of age.
The reform, which introduces innovative measures, such as sick leave due to disabling menstruation, maintains the deadlines set by law in 2010 and endorsed by the Constitutional Court, with which abortion will continue to be free during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy.
Exceptionally, the pregnancy may be interrupted until week 22 when there is a serious risk to the life or health of the pregnant woman or risk of serious anomalies to the fetus. Then it will only be possible when fetal abnormalities incompatible with life or an extremely serious and incurable disease confirmed by a clinical committee are detected.
These are the axes of the project promoted by the Ministry of Equality, which will see the light of day with the opposition of the PP and Vox:
Women may voluntarily terminate their pregnancy from the age of 16. The requirement introduced in 2015 by the Government of the PP that forced minors of 16 and 17 years to have the consent of their legal representatives is eliminated
Public health centers must organize their services to guarantee the provision of abortion.
A registry of conscientious objectors will be created. Whoever declares himself an objector may not practice abortions in private healthcare either.
The obligation to inform the woman about the maternity support benefits and aid is eliminated, as is the three-day reflection period.
The reform extends reproductive rights to all “trans people with the capacity to gestate”, that is, to those who have changed their sex to the male but have kept their female reproductive system.
new rights
The law establishes the right to temporary work incapacity due to disabling painful rules.
It also includes the right to temporary disability from the first day of the 39th week of pregnancy and while receiving health care for an abortion and unable to work.
The reform is committed to free menstrual hygiene products -tampons, pads or menstrual cups- in educational centers, prisons and social centers for women in vulnerable situations.
Public and universal access to contraception is also guaranteed and public authorities are urged to promote co-responsibility, supporting research and financing of male contraceptives
Affective-sexual education will be part of the curriculum throughout compulsory education.
Forced sterilization and contraception, forced abortion, and surrogate pregnancy are included as violence in the field of women’s sexual and reproductive health.
To prevent surrogates, which are illegal in Spain, advertising by intermediation agencies is prohibited and information campaigns will be carried out.
More than 90,000 abortions in one year and less than 16% in public centers
In 2021, the last year with official figures from the Ministry of Health, 90,189 voluntary interruptions of pregnancy were carried out in Spain and only 15.67% took place in a public center.
That percentage will foreseeably rise in the coming years with the reform of the sexual and reproductive health law that Congress approves this Thursday and that seeks to guarantee that public centers perform abortions, which will require reorganizing services.
Only Cantabria, the Balearic Islands and Catalonia perform more abortions in public health than in private, according to the latest data.
Health statistics also show that many women are forced to travel to terminate their pregnancy, since twelve provinces -Jaén, Huesca, Teruel, Cuenca, Toledo, Guadalajara, Palencia, Ávila, Segovia, Soria, Zamora and Cáceres, in addition to Ceuta and Melilla- did not report any abortion in 2021.
The reform also eliminates the requirement that girls under 16 and 17 years of age have parental authorization.
In 2021, 3,734 minors (4% of the total) aborted and 2,761 were 16 or 17 years old.