Alex Trelinski
MURCIA’S High Court has ruled that single women are entitled to the same 32-week parental leave as couples- rather than just 16 weeks.
The court backed the mother, identified as SPM, saying that she is entitled to the parental leave that would have been due if she had a partner.
It stated that all babies should be treated the same, regardless of the composition of their families.
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SPM gave birth to her daughter in January 2022.
She initially took the matter to social services and lower courts, where her request was turned down.
Speaking to El Pais, SPM said she had brought the case because she didn’t want her daughter to be treated differently from other babies.
The Murcia court judge noted: “It’s obvious that the duration and intensity of the need to care for a newborn are the same, regardless of the family model into which he or she was born.”
The court referred to a decision by Spain’s constitutional court, which ruled in November 2024 that children born into single-parent families should not be discriminated against or treated differently to children born into two-parent families.
Her lawyer, Miguel Angel Fructuoso, said it remained to be seen how the court would implement its decision.
SPM said she was honoured to have fought the case and to have shown that ‘the children of single-parent families are the same as other children’.
She added that she could never replace the weeks she and her daughter had lost.
“All that time when my daughter needed the care to which she was entitled has gone, and the ruling can’t give it back,” she told El Pais.
According to Fructuoso, his client could be compensated for the leave she had been denied.
But SPM stated: “For me, my daughter was being discriminated against… I’m very happy that her rights have now been recognised, but, at the same time, it’s really sad that she didn’t have those rights when it mattered.”
