Spain Mulls Easing Strict Abortion Law
Spain has taken a first step toward amending its restrictive law on abortion, a government minister said Thursday, moving to fill one of the last big gaps in a drive for sweeping social change in this traditionally Roman Catholic country.
A panel of 13 lawyers, doctors and other experts has been appointed to come up with recommendations for the Socialist government on how to amend the current law, Equality Minister Bibiana Aido told reporters.
She said she expects a bill to be presented to Parliament in the first six months of 2009, but could not specify if it would provide for abortion on demand up to 12 to 14 weeks into a pregnancy, as demanded by pro-choice campaigners.
The current law, which dates from 1985, allows abortion in the first 12 weeks in case of rape, 22 weeks in case of fetal malformation, and at any time if a psychiatrist certifies that the mother's physical or mental health is endangered.
The vast majority of the roughly 100,000 abortions carried out in Spain each year fall into the latter category, according to the Association of Accredited Abortion Clinics. Abortion foes call it a loophole that is grossly abused.
Aido said the current law has to be changed because Spain's 17 semiautonomous regions, which administer their own health care systems, apply the legislation unevenly, with women in some areas having trouble getting the procedure performed or obtaining government financing to which they are entitled.
"This cannot be," Aido said.
When Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero came to power in 2004, he embarked on an ambitious program of social change that eventually saw Spain legalize gay marriage and enact fast-track divorce proceedings. Along the way, he infuriated the church and the conservative opposition.
In the campaign leading up to the 2004 election, Zapatero had promised abortion on demand but after taking power he eventually dropped the issue.
United Left, a small party in Parliament, has said the Socialist Party told lawmakers it had already angered too many people by engaging in peace talks with armed Basque separatists and granting more autonomy to the Catalonia region and did not want to pick another fight.
Zapatero won re-election in March of this year and has been saying ever since that abortion reform would once again be a priority.
During the campaign, however, his Socialists steered way clear of the issue, as did the conservative Popular Party. So sensitive is the issue politically that both were wary of spooking centrist voters.
In January, about 40 abortion clinics went on strike for five days to protest what they called police harassment in raids targeting facilities that were allegedly carrying out illegal abortions.
Some of the clinics targeted were in Madrid, and they blamed the campaign here on conservatives who run the regional government.
© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. A panel of 13 lawyers, doctors and other experts has been appointed to come up with recommendations for the Socialist government on how to amend the current law, Equality Minister Bibiana Aido told reporters.
She said she expects a bill to be presented to Parliament in the first six months of 2009, but could not specify if it would provide for abortion on demand up to 12 to 14 weeks into a pregnancy, as demanded by pro-choice campaigners.
The current law, which dates from 1985, allows abortion in the first 12 weeks in case of rape, 22 weeks in case of fetal malformation, and at any time if a psychiatrist certifies that the mother's physical or mental health is endangered.
The vast majority of the roughly 100,000 abortions carried out in Spain each year fall into the latter category, according to the Association of Accredited Abortion Clinics. Abortion foes call it a loophole that is grossly abused.
Aido said the current law has to be changed because Spain's 17 semiautonomous regions, which administer their own health care systems, apply the legislation unevenly, with women in some areas having trouble getting the procedure performed or obtaining government financing to which they are entitled.
"This cannot be," Aido said.
When Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero came to power in 2004, he embarked on an ambitious program of social change that eventually saw Spain legalize gay marriage and enact fast-track divorce proceedings. Along the way, he infuriated the church and the conservative opposition.
In the campaign leading up to the 2004 election, Zapatero had promised abortion on demand but after taking power he eventually dropped the issue.
United Left, a small party in Parliament, has said the Socialist Party told lawmakers it had already angered too many people by engaging in peace talks with armed Basque separatists and granting more autonomy to the Catalonia region and did not want to pick another fight.
Zapatero won re-election in March of this year and has been saying ever since that abortion reform would once again be a priority.
During the campaign, however, his Socialists steered way clear of the issue, as did the conservative Popular Party. So sensitive is the issue politically that both were wary of spooking centrist voters.
In January, about 40 abortion clinics went on strike for five days to protest what they called police harassment in raids targeting facilities that were allegedly carrying out illegal abortions.
Some of the clinics targeted were in Madrid, and they blamed the campaign here on conservatives who run the regional government.
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Going to make this simple so that even you can understand it: If you don''t like abortion, don''t get one. If you want to go to church, go. If you want to go on vacation, go. See that''s the supposed beauty of America, choice. Everyone gets to make their own. MORONS like you Nazi''s want to make our choices, ain''t gonna happen!!!
till they get old..then they learn the errors of their ways..
read up about where ''jane roe'' stands on the matter now
http://www.pregnantpause.org/people/roe.htm
Posted by jon2012 at 01:50 PM : Sep 05, 2008
+ report abuse
******************
well the death penalty for murderers is the state''s responsibility AND NOT THE BLEEDING HEART LIBERALS..
they only way you can stop these liberals from promoting..abortion is we rename a fetus to CONVICTED MURDERER..
All pregnancies are people, right? So they have to be registered and given protection...
Just how big do you want government to be? How much interferrence in our lives do YOU want them to have?
Regards,
Posted by Nancy_Naive at 06:50 PM : Sep 04, 2008
+ report abuse
*****
okay lets stop twisting words around and lets stop being politically correct..do you really think that MOST abortions are done because there is a true threat to the mother..or there are deformaties..or it was fromw rape or incest.?
This website http://www.pregnancy.org/pregnancy/fetaldevelopment1.php
says that the heart starts beating at 5 weeks. That is before most abortions.
Posted by libsluv2spit at 03:23 PM : Sep 04, 2008
This is an old argument with hardly any merit. Murder is legally defined, it is not something that religion or lack of it will define for you. The question is should it face the same sanctions as killing a human life?
Unless a fetus is granted the same individual rights as a person, the answer is clearly NO. But should we? We are wasting our breath if we don''t address this. I would argue that a fetus having rights would damage a woman''s overall rights, not just her reproductive rights. How can separate individual rights reside in the same body? Who owns that body, the woman or the fetus?
Biology clearly says that the fetus is subordinate to the woman carrying it because if the woman''s life or health fails, so will the fetus. But not the other way around. A woman is a person that can survive as an independent organism, a fetus is not.
Posted by libsluv2spit at 03:23 PM : Sep 04, 2008
What escape? Abortion is still a woman''s responsibility, not the state''s or the vocal Christians''.
Posted by SusanHelit at 08:08 PM : Sep 04, 2008
How many pregnant women have been threatoned with death from the birth of a baby and the only option was abortion?
"And abortion is not murder nor is it killing a human life".
Posted by SusanHelit at 08:08 PM : Sep 04, 2008
Most state laws provide for abortion upto and including late-term (baby''s body with the exception of the head literally removed from the uteris at birth. Is it not a baby yet?
Nancy,
If a women is attacked and lives (or dies), and the fetus (latin for baby)dies. Will there be charges for killing the baby?
And abortion is not murder nor is it killing a human life. A cluster of cells with no brain waves are not a life. The mother is a human life - and the one to be concerned with, it is her choice and only hers, to sacrifice and risk her body to grow a new life. As the fetus develops, the balance tilts - but when it''s her life on the line, at risk - it must always be her choice.