Spanish abortion reform opens unwelcome debate for conservatives

A reform that seeks to loosen existing Spanish abortion legislation has broad support from the left but threatens to divide the conservative opposition, whose leadership is seeking to present a moderate image to voters.

Last week, the cabinet of prime minister Pedro Sánchez, a socialist, approved the government’s abortion reform bill, meaning it will now go to parliament to be debated in the coming months.

The proposed legislation would remove the existing requirement for girls aged 16-17 to obtain parental consent before having a termination. It also aims to make abortion more available in public clinics – around 85 percent of terminations currently take place in private centres.

The government also claims the law makes Spain “the first country in Europe to acknowledge menstrual health as a right” by providing paid leave to women with period pains.

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“All women should know that they will grow up with more and more rights and that this feminist country is paving the way,” said equality minister Irene Montero, after the bill’s approval by the cabinet.

It appears to have enough support from the leftist coalition government and its allies to become law.

However, the return of this issue to the political agenda has created a conundrum for the main opposition Popular Party (PP). The conservative PP has traditionally opposed attempts to make abortion more readily available but is currently trying to cultivate a moderate image under a new leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, ahead of a general election expected next year.

When asked about his position on abortion in June, Núñez Feijóo said he opposed the government’s planned removal of the need for parental consent for 16-17-year-olds, but added that it was “good to find common ground” on the issue.

“We believe that it’s a mistake to use abortion to divide society,” he said, suggesting he would prefer to focus on other issues, such as the economy and cost-of-living crisis.

Before Núñez Feijóo took control of the PP in April, there had been longstanding tensions between the party’s right wing, which supported the Catholic Church in wanting tougher legislation, and centrists, who tended to support the existing law or fewer restrictions.

In 2010, the PP sought to reverse an earlier socialist reform, which allowed abortion in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy, by appealing against it before the constitutional court.

In recent years, polls have shown that abortion is not a priority for voters. However, 12 years after the appeal was filed, the court is still yet to rule and the pending decision has hampered the PP’s subsequent efforts to move on from the issue.

In recent days, the PP’s position on abortion has come under renewed scrutiny, after the party’s maverick president of the Madrid region, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, expressed support for the new Bill’s elimination of parental consent for 16- and 17-year-olds.

Asked last week what a girl of that age should do if she wanted to have an abortion, Díaz Ayuso said: “I think she has to have the abortion . . . I think you can’t force somebody to lead a life that is contrary to what they want.”

This is the latest in a string of issues on which Díaz Ayuso, a libertarian populist, has appeared to clash with or undermine the national PP leadership. Most recently, the Madrid leader attacked a government energy-saving initiative which her own party had appeared to have supported.

In the wake of her comments, right-wing commentator Rubén Amón observed that abortion has become a minefield for Núñez Feijóo’s conservatives.

“Avoiding the debate is problematic because there are firm anti-abortionists among the PP’s ranks and also because this trap was not set by the socialists but by the PP itself 12 years ago,” he said.