Extremadura’s PP premier wants common front with PSOE over abortion

In a public show of defiance, José Antonio Monago, the Popular Party’s (PP) regional premier in Extremadura, offered on Monday to join the Socialists in their battle against the government’s planned abortion reform.

Monago, one of the PP’s most vociferous dissidents in the abortion controversy, has proposed helping the major opposition party in its quest to pressure the PP government into changing the text of the reform that was drafted by Justice Secretary Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón. The proposal restricts women’s rights to obtain an abortion in Spain, modifying legislation that was passed by the Socialists in 2010 when they were in government.

Under Ruiz Gallardón’s reform, women will only be able to interrupt their pregnancy in two instances: in cases of rape or if the woman’s life or health is at risk. Fetal deformity would no longer be considered a reason for an abortion under the reform.

Last month, the PP-governing Extremadura parliament passed a resolution demanding that Ruiz-Gallardón tone down the reform.

Francisca Rosa, spokeswoman for the region, explained that the PP would “offer a consensus” to the opposition Socialists to form a common front to see that the bill’s language was changed.

Lawmakers are expected to vote on Tuesday in secret on a Socialist motion to withdraw the bill immediately.

Meanwhile, a group of women symbolically registered their bodies on Monday with the Mercatile Registry as part of a protest against the abortion reform. The registry agreed to admit the applications of about 40 women who say they want to ensure they are the official owners of their own bodies.

The attempt is a symbolic gesture against the government.