Forty citizens' initiatives, six hundred tour buses, two million people: It was the expected huge mass rally with which opponents of the planned liberalization of abortion laws said "No" to their government's plans on Saturday. "Every life matters," is the name of an action alliance of more than three dozen associations that joined forces to call for a protest.
People traveled from all over Spain and turned Madrid into a "capital of life". Ignacio Garcia, coordinator of the assembly, and his comrades-in-arms wanted to make it clear to the government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero that its plans meet with widespread rejection. In fact, at the end of September, the cabinet had approved a bill that provides for a significant relaxation of abortion rights in Spain. Abortions are then to be performed until 14. The first week of pregnancy is not punishable by law, and in the case of health risks for the woman or serious fetal deformities, it can be performed up to the 22nd week of pregnancy. week – and even later, abortion should be possible with the consent of a committee of doctors. Most controversially, the bill would allow underage girls 16 and older to have abortions without their parents' knowledge or consent. The project must now be approved by parliament with an absolute majority. "We know that women suffer enormously from abortion," says Benigno Blanco, president of the Spanish Family Forum, which will take to the streets in Madrid on Saturday. "How can we leave underage girls alone with such a burden as the new law provides for?"
Abortions in Spain are still forbidden in principle If the bill is passed by parliament this winter or next spring at the latest, Spain will have one of the most liberal abortion laws in the world. The planned "Sexual and Reproductive Health Act" would even grant access to abortion for free and also curtail the right of doctors and nurses not to participate in abortion for reasons of conscience. At the moment, the laws of 1985 are still in force; abortions in Spain are basically forbidden. The regulation allows only three exceptional cases: Rape, deformity of the fetus, and a threat to the physical or mental health of the expectant mother. Usually, women in Spain who want to have an abortion have had no problem getting a certificate of exception in recent years – and so the annual number of abortions doubled in the past decade: 122.000 abortions were counted in 2008 – more than in Germany, with only half as many inhabitants.
"A nation that kills its own children is a nation without a future" Demonstration coordinator Garcia himself does not believe that Zapatero will be diaded from relaxing abortion laws by the rally: "But he should know that he is doing it against the wishes of most Spaniards." The protest meeting should also be a clear signal to the conservative opposition to more vehemently oppose abortion. "A nation that kills its own children is a nation without a future.". Last week, the Spanish Bishops' Conference condemned the planned liberalization of Spain's abortion law and called on all Catholics in Spain to take part in the rally in Madrid. After the introduction of "gay marriage," the abolition of compulsory religious education, and the introduction of so-called "express" divorces, Spain's bishops have repeatedly taken to the streets themselves in recent years to actively protest the government's "anti-clerical" reform policies.