Left image – Wikimedia Commons: Ana Redondo 2023 (cropped)
Spanish Minister of Equality Ana Redondo said she supports making abortion a right in the Spanish Constitution when “the appropriate and necessary conditions are met to be able to do so”, following the example of France.
Last year, on 4 March, France’s National Assembly voted 780-72 to make abortion a constitutional right. Now, on its anniversary, Spain is considering doing the same.
Speaking at a press conference last week, Minister Redondo said that adding abortion to Spain’s Constitution would be “a good way to protect sexual and reproductive rights and, above all, the freedom of women”.
Abortion on demand is legal up to 14 weeks gestation in Spain, and up to 22 weeks if the baby has a severe defect or if the mother’s life is at risk.
Meanwhile, a draft law drawn up by Spain’s Ministry of Social Rights currently proposes to grant extra protections to chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans because of their “genetic closeness” to human beings.
The proposal cited the claims of bioethicist Joseph Fletcher who established 15 criteria defining “humanhood”.
The Ministry said it seeks to put “these beings on the same level as our ancestors” and recognises apes’ “cognitive abilities such as learning, communication and complex reasoning that bring them close to those of human beings”.
In 2022, Spain also banned all pro-life influence outside abortion facilities, punishable by up to a year in prison.
The pro-abortion slogan “My Body My Choice” was projected onto the Eiffel Tower after France became the first nation in the world to make abortion a constitutional right.
Since abortion is now a “guaranteed freedom” in France, any future attempt to modify or prohibit abortion could be impossible, making good on President Emmanuel Macron’s pledge to make France 1975 abortion law “irreversible”.
President Macron has also called for the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights to include abortion. Addressing the European Parliament in Strasbourg in January 2022, he said:
“Twenty years after the proclamation of our Charter of Fundamental Rights, which notably enshrined the abolition of the death penalty throughout the Union, I hope that we can update this charter, notably to be more explicit on… the recognition of the right to abortion.”
President Macron’s proposal was applauded by the Parliament.
Last year, France also celebrated abortion at the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics, raising golden statues of pro-abortion feminists, including Simone Veil, Health Minister in France pushed for the legalisation of abortion, known as the Veil Act, in the 1970s.
It has been suggested that last year’s vote to make abortion a right in France was a response to the repeal of Roe v. Wade in the United States in 2022, giving US states back the right to determine their own abortion laws.
If you’re reading this and haven’t yet donated to SPUC, please consider helping now. Thank You!
