Thousands of people demonstrated in Madrid on Sunday against a bill by the Spanish socialist government intended to facilitate access to public hospitals for women wishing to have an abortion.
"Abortion is not a right
," read banners as protesters marched through the center of the capital chanting,
"Let's respect life more!"
“There are other options.
After an abortion, there is always trauma, but we don't talk about that
,” said Yolanda Torosio, a 44-year-old secretary who came to demonstrate with her daughter.
The demonstration was organized by the "Oui à la vie" platform, which estimates that it brought together 20,000 people, while the authorities gave the figure of 9,000 demonstrators.
The government of socialist Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez supports the adoption of a new law intended to facilitate access to public hospitals for all women wishing to have an abortion - including minors aged 16 and 17 - and penalizing anti-abortion demonstrations. abortion in front of the clinics, considering that it is a matter of "harassment" operations.
Abortion was decriminalized in Spain in 1985, but for three reasons only: rape, "serious risk" for the woman and fetal malformation.
It was only in 2010 that this country with a strong Catholic tradition legalized abortion without medical justification up to the 14th week of pregnancy.
Parental authorization
In 2015, the right, then in power, wanted to return to the 1985 law. Faced with an outcry, in a country often at the forefront of feminism, it had nevertheless reformed the legislation to oblige 16 and 17 years old to provide parental consent.
An obligation - existing in most European countries with the exception of France, Germany and the United Kingdom - that the Spanish executive now wants to repeal.
In Spain, women sometimes have to travel hundreds of kilometers to have an abortion due to the lack of specialized services nearby.
Eight of the 50 provinces of the country have not recorded any abortion since its decriminalization in 1985, denounces the left-wing government, which wishes to guarantee a minimum of access to abortion.
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