RIGHTS-SPAIN: Hung Parliament to Decide on Abortion

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Alicia Fraerman

MADRID, Sep 21 1998 (IPS) - A tied parliament will rule on the decriminalisation of abortion here Tuesday with the ‘fors’ and ‘againsts’ running neck and neck, while the remaining 20 independent nationalists could tip the balance either way.

Opposition Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE), United Left (IU) and New Left (NI), deputies will present two different proposals to extend the decriminalisation of abortion.

Meanwhile, the centre-right Peoples’ Party – currently holding control over government – told its deputies to vote against both proposals, and party discipline will take precedent over the personal criteria of some legislators, like Celia Villalobos, who believe depenalisation necessary.

However, the PP does not have an absolute majority in the 350 member Congress, and the left only have 164 votes (141 from the PSOE, 16 IU and seven from the Galician Nationalist Bloc), falling short of the required 176.

And such a tie leaves the final resolution to the remaining deputies expected to vote “with their consciences,” breaking party discipline or making use of the freedom given to Catalan, Canary Island and Basque representatives by their parties.

Abortion was decriminalised in 1985 in cases of rape, fetal malformation or when continuing the pregnancy would endanger the mother’s physical or psychological health.

The PSOE is now proposing it also be depenalised in cases where the pregnancy occurs against a background of serious personal, family or social conflict and if it is completed within the first 12 weeks of gestation.

The IU and NI, meanwhile, propose to extend the legal limit for abortion to 14 and 16 weeks respectively.

Harsh opposition was raised to the two initiatives by the Episcopal Executive Committee, which released a communique entitled “Even Broader License to Kill Children” on September 13.

“For a Catholic there is no freedom to vote on a law like this,” said secretary general and spokesman of the Episcopal Conference, Juan Jose Asenjo.

The Church campaign was in full swing on the eve of voting, with sermons by some 20,000 priests this Sunday dealing with the issue. This was followed by demonstrations both for and against decriminalisation outside Parliament Monday.

In the morning, representatives of 30 women’s groups presented letters to each of the deputies, asking them to vote for the depenalisation. They were replaced in the afternoon by the anti- abortion campaigners.

And 24,000 Spaniards wrote to President of Congress, middle of the road Federico Trillo, asking him not to extend the range of conditions where abortion can be considered legal.

Justice Minister Margarita Mariscal de Gante, said Monday the existing three legal possibilities for abortion “are sufficient to protect situations where the rights of the mother should prevail.”

The Church and PP stance has come under fire from the left wing, leading union centres and agnostic non governmental organisations.

But criticism has also come from within Catholic ranks.

Isabel Gomez Acebo, liberal theologist, feminist and religion professor in the Catholic University of Comillas, is generally anti-abortion, but was quoted Monday in national daily ‘El Pais’ saying “Having a rapist’s child is something which no one should be asked to do.”

Another progressive theologist, Enrique Miret Magdalena, said the inflexibility of the bishops is forcing people away from the religious perspectives.

Paloma Alfonso, from the Catholics For a Free Choice association, said she was angry with bishops “who are ignorant of the problem” vindicating “the old Catholic tenet of a clean conscience.”

Despite the legalisation of abortion in the three exceptional cases, there have only been a total of 370,000 legal abortions in Spain since 1990.

There are provinces where no hospitals offer pregnancy termination services, either due to the attitudes of doctors and anaesthetists, or because the patients are unable to present the necessary papers to certify their situation.

As a result, many women continue to abort in dangerous conditions with no professional medical help, while those who can afford it travel abroad.

Spanish daily ‘El Mundo’ reported London’s British Pregnancy Advisory Service clinic alone is attended by a hundred Spanish women each year. They have to pay 1,000 dollars for its services, plus travel and accommodation costs.