Creating problems

Justice Minister Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón of the ruling conservative Popular Party (PP) has had the opportunity to see for himself how his draft abortion law has sparked widespread criticism — not just among women, but also among healthcare professionals; and not only within Spain, but also abroad, where the planned reform to the current legislation has been received as an inexplicably regressive move in a country that considers itself to be modern and respectful of individual rights.

In editorials by leading media and in remarks by European leaders, Spain is being seen once more as a reactionary and dogmatic exception in seeking to impose legislation that is only defended within Europe by extreme right-wing parties. It is significant, and should be a source of concern for Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, that the most enthusiastic support for Gallardón’s project has come from the French extremist leader Marine Le Pen.

The proposed new legislation not only eliminates the possibility of allowing women to decide freely on abortion up to 14 weeks into their pregnancy, as is the norm in the majority of European countries, but also returns to a legal framework that is even more restrictive than the one that was in place between 1985 and 2010 — one that the two governments of former PP Prime Minister José María Aznar shied away from reforming.

Within the PP itself, the draft law has already met with rejection and has created divisions. Some party leaders are concerned about the possible fallout from the creation of a problem that was not there in the first place. A good number of PP leaders — such as the premiers of Extremadura and Galicia, José Antonio Monago and Alberto Núñez Feijóo — as well as the central government’s delegate in the province of Madrid, Cristina Cifuentes, and the mayors of Valladolid and Zamora, have expressed their reservations about the proposed new legislation, particularly regarding its elimination of the malformation of a fetus as a legitimate justification for an abortion. Extremadura’s Monago has been particularly forthright in his criticism of the bill, calling for the greatest possible consensus to formulate a law that defends the freedom of women, arguing that no one can be denied the right to be a mother, but also that no one can be obliged to become one.

The draft law suffers from more than a few imprecisions and generates doubts and contradictions. For example, in cases where serious fetal malformations are detected after the 22nd week of pregnancy, a woman is not allowed to have an abortion even if the situation would seriously affect her mental health, given that she has gone beyond the limit established by the draft law. Obliging a woman to give birth in such cases is not only an act of cruelty but also discriminates against the person in question, given that other women will have benefited from the early detection of such deformities.

The proposed new legislation has also prompted alarm among healthcare professionals, particularly psychiatrists, who have been charged with the task of gauging whether there is a “lasting and permanent” risk to the mental health of the mother. Many professionals will recuse themselves from taking part in such diagnoses because of the legal insecurity that will be generated by the process. That was the main issue with the law approved in 1985, a problem that also remains in an aggravated form for the new law. Gallardón has said that the text of the bill will not be amended in its passage through Congress, where the PP holds an absolute majority. This reveals a dogmatic, closed attitude toward a mature and plural public that deserves better.