The PP is entangled again with abortion after pressure from the hard sectors of the right

The PP continues to get entangled with its position on abortion, after Alberto Núñez Feijóo has decided to support the law of deadlines, which the Constitutional Court has endorsed last week 13 years after the appeal of the PP.

The hardest sectors of the right do not share Feijóo's turn and are pressing for him to reconsider it, through public statements and calls to territorial leaders, as some of them admit in private.

In this context, the PP campaign spokesman, Borja Sémper, held yesterday at a press conference that abortion "is not a right", although he reaffirmed his support for the deadline law.

Faced with the new imbroglio, official party sources later assured that the PP does consider that the voluntary termination of pregnancy is a right, "because the Constitutional Court has recognized it that way."

The NEOS association, of the ex-minister of the PP Jaime Mayor Oreja, and the Assembly of Associations for Life, made up of more than a hundred anti-abortion organizations, have released a statement very critical of the PP in recent days after the turn of the party accepting the law of deadlines.

"This support means a contradiction, not only with the position that this party had maintained, but also a distancing and abandonment of the deepest convictions of a substantial part of its electorate," they state in the text, in which they ask Feijóo a "reflection" on the position of the PP.

The bishops have also reacted with indignation to the sentence of the Constitutional Court that endorses the law of terms that now also supports the PP.

“It is sad to see how a Constitutional Court has managed to endorse an unfair law,

ideological and against science, which takes away the dignity and respect for life of certain human beings because of their age", the Episcopal Conference has expressed, through the Bishop of the Canary Islands, José Mazuelos.

The person in charge of Family and Life even suggests that the ruling of the high court hides "economic interests."

More information

The Constitutional Court rejects the PP's appeal and fully endorses the abortion deadline law

The leadership of the PP is no stranger to these sensitivities, and has decided to focus from now on on the defense of motherhood, with the aim of tempering spirits, according to sources in the leadership.

Asked about the criticism from these sectors, Sémper remarked on Monday that the PP defends "the right to life" and maintained that the PP has not moved from the social report debated and approved at the last party congress in 2017, according to the which abortion is not a right, even if the party accepts the law of deadlines in force.

"We have not spoken at any time that abortion is a right," said the popular campaign spokesman at a press conference.

"Which does not take away from its entity and importance and which does not stop questioning the public powers to regulate this phenomenon, to give security to women who decide to undertake this process,"

Feijóo's problem is that he has modified the PP's position on abortion, a very sensitive issue for the right, without an organic debate or a new ideological presentation.

Therefore, in reality, the social report debated and approved at the last party congress in 2017 is still valid, which reads: “The Popular Party is firmly committed to defending and protecting the right to life.

That is why we understand that abortion should not be considered as a right, but rather as a failure of society”.

However, an official spokesman for the Feijóo PP qualified after Sémper's statements that abortion "is a right", because "the Constitutional Court has just said so", by endorsing the voluntary interruption of pregnancy freely until a week 14 gestation.

The same sources stressed that the PP does not believe that it is "a fundamental right", but it is a right, and they reaffirmed their support for the deadline law.

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