Claire Wilson
SPANISH MPs narrowly voted to continue moving forward with legislation to drastically limit access to abortion in the country.
In a secret ballot, initiated by the Socialist Parliamentary Group, MPs voted 183 to 151 against abandoning the proposed changes to the abortion law.
Tabled in late December by the governing People’s party, the legislation seeks to enact some of the toughest abortion legislation in Europe.
Widely attacked by women’s groups as a step backwards, the changes will make abortion illegal except in the case of rape or when there is a risk to the physical and mental health of the mother.
Any woman wanting an abortion would require two doctors to verify these circumstances were being met.
The secret vote was an attempt to thwart the bill before it is put to a general vote. The idea, said Carmen Montón of the Spanish Socialist Workers party, came from concerns over the legislation that she and other opposition members heard in parliamentary corridors.
“We want PP’s parliamentarians – especially the women – to have the freedom to express how they really feel about the issue,” she said prior to the vote. “We’re trying to take away the excuse that they would be penalized by the barons of the party.”
The secret vote was intended to encourage MPs to vote with their constituents rather than party allegiances in mind, she said. “The majority of Spaniards don’t want this reform.”
Mariano Rajoy has consistently defended the changes, arguing they fulfilled an electoral promise.
Polls show between 70% and 80% are opposed to rolling back the country’s abortion laws.
Organised action against the proposed legislation has been taking place almost every other day across Spain.
This week saw hundreds of women walk into regional government offices demanding that their bodies be entered in commercial registries, normally reserved for cars and airplanes.
Activists explained to confused bureaucrats that they wanted official certification that their bodies belong to them.
Speaking as one, there is not a MAN on the planet entitled to legislate on what women do with their bodies. This subject should only be voted on by women. It is a decision to be made by them alone. This move is a pathetic attempt by men to continue their lop-sided control of the fair sex.
Fight on ladies!
Stefanjo,
You have hit the nail on the head. Thank you.
Claire
Spain is a backward country in so many ways. Quite unbelievable really.
Its about time Spain gets their act together on this issue
If the fairer race decide they want an abortion then why not for numerous reasons
Its not only a man,s world any longer !!!!
Back to the dark ages if this goes through. Mind you Ireland is just as bad.
Really ? What a proud society we are ? killing our most defenselles citizens in the name of woman’s right to choose?
Completely support this legislation.
Btw please educate yourself a little bit about feminism
who founded who paying for this movement and why ….
This planet really has only one problem – too many bipeds.
The sky pixie does’nt provide anything it is this planet that enables us to exist.
Why do you think so many from outside Europe or North America are forced to emigrate to these continents – too many people and not enough food in their own lands.
Contraception is the only sensible answer to this pressing problem and apart from rape and incest victims, pregnancy should’nt happen unless a woman wants it to happen.
Maybe unwanted pregnancies will happen less when there is a pill for men to take.
Claudia – get real, a foetus is not a citizen, is that what the priests have told you to believe.
Quite right Stuart. This is a very backward step and I cannot understand why the PP are risking alienating so many voters – this could cost them the next general election. Most people will either resort to backstreet abortions “Vera Drake” style or go to the UK where it is much easier. It will depend on how much money they have. No woman should ever have to be pregnant is she does not want to be. How about opening up more birth control clinics?
Quite right Stuart. This is a very backward step and I cannot understand why the PP are risking alienating so many voters – this could cost them the next general election. Most people will either resort to backstreet abortions “Vera Drake” style or go to the UK where it is much easier. It will depend on how much money they have. No woman should ever have to be pregnant if she does not want to be. How about opening up more birth control clinics?
Claudia – get real, a foetus is not a citizen, is that what the priests have told you to believe.
Stuart the first of all I’m Not Catholic …so priest never told me anything about that, I’m jewish born In Frankfurt.
My point of view describe what I feel as a human being.
With birth rate 1.3 in Germany and future economical and demographical disaster cause by that, I would criminalize right to abortion, gender , feminism etc….
All those movements are design to soft depopulation Eu and all continents, and have nothing about with women’s rights or anybody else rights.
Theoretically we are lucky, compare to Asia (one child policy or Compulsory sterilization in India) but the thing is that people should meayby start understanding what’s going on around them.
Eugenics can answer on most of your questions.
Best Regards
Claudia – I assume under your regime you would also criminalise anti-racism and anti-homophobia campaigners, given that they, like feminists, are seeking equality?
Claudia: Your grasp of English is a little shaky and that’s fine. But do you REALLY mean that women should go to jail for demanding their rights? Quote: “I would criminalise right to abortion, gender, FEMINISM”? The mind boggles at what the “etc.” encompasses. You missed one of Stuart’s important points, namely there are just TOO MANY of us in the west. First-world inhabitants consume far more of the planets resources.
Legal, medically supervised abortion, though distasteful to some, is the least worse option in circumstances of unwanted pregnancy. It is up to the woman to choose and she has a very tough decision, without having to listen to self-righteous individuals who want to influence that choice.
Especially when those individuals are men.
Throwing the emotive word “eugenics” into the argument, is unworthy.
Claudia,
population control is the bogeyman of Anglo-Saxon capitalism. Once the world’s population starts to fall it collapses.
An awful lot of employment is parasitical and unnecessary, sadly this is a feature of the ‘developed’ western type of system, I simply can’t use the word ‘society’.
Releasing these badly employed people to take care of the bulge of elderly means that they can end their days in dignity and here’s the punchline -instead of having to build more and more housing, instead of overfishing and over working the land, people will have more space to live once this bulge is over.
We need a world with far less people – no wars fought over water or oil or good farming land.
Big business is behind all the negative arguments over population decline.
You are Jewish so you will know that the Jewish ‘settlers’ in Israel have very large families just like the Palestinians. Right now the population of Israel/Palestine is 4 x times what the land can support – more war, more bloodshed. Is’nt eugenics what the far right in Israel is all about?
The one thing the Red Fascists did in China that was good was the one child rule – without it there would be 350 million more Chinese and your saying that is a good thing. I was going to end with LOL but that would be quite wrong, it’s so sad that so many like yourself cannot see that over-population will lead to collapse not just of the human population but all other lifeforms as well.
You need to study why the Myan civilisation collapsed – this destroys your argument completely.