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The progressive coalition government obtained the majority support of the Congress of Deputies to give the green light to a reform to the law approved in 2010. The changes incorporate menstrual health and the right to leave work for painful menstruations, sexual education in all stages of school education or free decision to minors of 16 and 17 years. On this historic day, the first ‘trans law’ in the country’s history was also approved.
Spain had this February 16 a historic day in terms of social rights. The coalition government made up of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) and the leftist United Podemos managed to get the Congress of Deputies to approve a reform to the abortion law that has been in force in this nation since 2010, which will be a pioneer in Europe due to the wide range of rights that women can enjoy in relation to this right.
The reform of the abortion law was one of the fundamental pillars in the social rights portfolio of the two partners that make up the government coalition, since, although abortion is universal and free since the law was approved in 2010 -during the government of former socialist president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero- during the period governed by the conservative Mariano Rajoy, a series of small reforms were carried out that restricted some points.
The new reform was approved in Congress with 185 votes in favor and 154 against. In favor, the left-wing parties of the coalition and a majority of nationalist and regionalist formations were positioned, and the refusal came from the right, embodied in the Popular Party (PP) and the extreme right (Vox).
This change makes the law one of the most progressive on the planet due to the pioneering changes it contains. Of all of them, the right to menstrual health and the recognition that workers who suffer painful periods will have to take sick leave in Spain are particularly noteworthy. It is estimated that one in three women suffers from this chronic pain, which on many occasions prevents them from carrying out their lives normally for several days.
The other important points of the reform have to do with the guarantee of allocating economic resources so that abortions are performed in public hospitals or with universalizing sexual education at all stages of education in schools and secondary schools in the Iberian country.
In addition, the new reform promoted by the Minister of Equality, Irene Montero (Unidas Podemos), reverses some of the restrictive measures promoted during the government of Mariano Rajoy, such as the consent of the parents or legal guardians of those under 16 and 17 years of age. and women with disabilities who want to abort. From now on they will be able to do it freely. The mandatory three days that the pregnant woman had to “reflect” after notifying that she wanted to abort are also eliminated.
Contradictions on the right regarding abortion
The reform comes a few days after the Constitutional Court of Spain rejected the appeal filed by the Popular Party 13 years ago against the current abortion law and endorsed the interruption of pregnancy as a legal right. This decision has brought division within the right, since its new leader, Alberto Núñez Feijoo, assured that the current Popular Party is in favor of the right to terminate the pregnancy by terms.
These statements have raised numerous criticisms from the most conservative and Catholic sectors of the Popular Party and have fueled the radical discourse of the extreme right, represented in Vox, calling the members of the Popular Party and Núñez Feijoo “traitors”. Faced with the controversy, the president of the popular has had to muddle through by saying that, although abortion is accepted in many European countries, it is not a fundamental right.
The reform also contemplates a veto to any law that tries to coerce at the regional level to women who try to abort. This has been introduced after the regional government of the community of Castilla y León (governed by PP and Vox) tried to make women listen to the heartbeat of the fetus before aborting.
Vox has been the party that has reacted the most to the reform and has promised that if it comes to power in the general elections scheduled for the end of 2023 it will repeal the entire law, setting back 40 years the progress in this matter in Spain.
Approval of the ‘trans law’, the controversial proposal that has fractured the left and feminism
The day was also marked by the approval of what is the first trans law in the history of Spain. This was one of the greatest challenges and promises of Irene Montero’s Ministry of Equality, but also one of the issues that has led to the most confrontations within feminism in Spain and the left in general.
What has divided feminism is the norm that guarantees gender self-determination, that is, that any person has the freedom of name and sex before the State from the age of 16. And previously with the consent of the parents or legal guardians or through a judicial investigation. A position that a sector of feminism rejects because it allows people who are born sexually as men to be considered women if they wish.
In addition, other aspects are contemplated, such as the total prohibition of any type of conversion therapy or aid for assisted reproduction of homosexual, bisexual or single-parent couples.
The law has been widely defended by the Ministry of Equality, various sectors of Unidas Podemos and the LGBTI collective, but there has been a schism between various groups, especially what is considered ‘radical feminism’. Irene Montero celebrated the parliamentary approval by making victory gestures to the attendees invited to the plenary session of Congress and recognized that this “is only a first step”, since there are still gender identities that have not yet been able to recognize this law.
Political polarization in Spain around the Ministry of Equality has increased in recent months, especially since the approval against violence against women, known as the ‘law of only if it is yes’. This text, which initially had the support of the Socialist Party, has been in the eye of the hurricane due to what appear to be ambiguities in the norm that have allowed people convicted of rape to see their sentences reduced.
The right has assured that it will also combat the ‘trans law’ and has regretted that it is a new law that “surely” will again generate the problems that the “law of only if it is yes” has caused.
With local media
