Spain’s conservative People’s Party (PP) has inadvertently fanned the flames of the country’s abortion debate after introducing new family support measures that recognise unborn children when calculating eligibility for certain benefits.
The legislation, introduced by the PP government in the Madrid region, allows expectant parents to apply for some family benefits before their baby is born. Families expecting a third child will also become eligible for large-family benefits from the 14th week of pregnancy, rather than having to wait until after birth.
The PP says the measures are intended to help tackle Spain’s demographic crisis, with the country recording one of the lowest birth rates in Europe.
Alfonso Serrano, secretary-general of the PP in Madrid, said his party “believes that the more births there are, the better, in Spain and in Madrid”, adding that the additional financial support is designed to encourage families to have children.
“Our social services, our pensions, depend on our national demographics, and you can’t solve that with immigration alone,” he said.
PP national leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo has pledged to introduce the policy across all 17 Spanish regions if his party wins next year’s general election.
“When a woman is expecting a child, that must be reflected in public sector support,” he said.
Despite the legislation making no changes to Spain’s abortion law, it has prompted fierce criticism from politicians on the left, who argue that recognising an unborn child for the purpose of family benefits could eventually threaten the abortion culture.
Ione Belarra, leader of the left-wing Podemos party, dismissed the proposal as “an idea copied directly from Trumpian politics.”
Yolanda Besteiro, president of the Federation of Progressive Women, claimed the measures represented “an attempt to control women’s bodies” and warned they could ultimately lead to restrictions on abortion.
The left-wing Más Madrid party described the legislation as “a media spectacle for abortion-deniers,” while political scientist Cristina Monge argued that recognising an unborn child in law could “open the door to the possible criminalisation of abortion.”
The PP has strongly rejected those claims.
Serrano insisted the legislation has “nothing to do with abortion,” maintaining that it is a practical response to Spain’s declining birth rate.
Madrid regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso, however, suggested the backlash reflected a broader ideological divide over family policy.
She said the initiative “infuriates those who impose frivolous, unhinged, ideological agendas, who know deep inside that we are right.”
Her chief adviser, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, described the policy as part of “the revolution against woke and lefty culture.”
SPUC’s Communications Manager, Peter Kearney, has said: “The Spanish left are in meltdown at the notion of simply recognising that life in the womb is indeed life because they know it will unfurl the pro-abortion culture they have been building since the 1970s. They decry the reopening of the abortion debate, though it has been the socialist party in Spain that have been trying to codify the destruction of children as a constitutional right.”
He continued: “Isabel Díaz Ayuso is correct. The progressives are scared that a conservative party would like to increase social welfare for families. Ideologically they should support this, but they have become so engulfed in rallying against the family and children that they are now scared of increasing benefits. Their anti-child policies are built on sinking sand and something as simple as humanising children through welfare will make people start to think differently. SPUC implores the British government to follow a similar policy to PP.”
