Right and far-right parties launch global anti-abortion offensive in Madrid
“The Senate became a “theme park” against women’s reproductive and sexual rights.”
The new anti-abortion movement??
Right-wing and far-right politicians launched an offensive against abortion on Monday at an ‘ultra’ summit in the Spanish Senate, despite the left-wing government’s criticism of Spain’s right-wing Partido Popular for compromising the neutrality of this state institution.
The Spanish Senate, where Spain’s Partido Popular (PP/EPP), which is the right-wing opposition to Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s PSOE/S&D government and has a majority, hosted the VI Transatlantic Summit Against Abortion, an international forum bringing together 300 far-right and right-wing representatives from 45 countries.
A few hours before the meeting, protestors expressed their opposition to the event in front of the Senate, calling for “free, safe and free abortion”. They also carried signs reading “Abortion is sacred”, “Right to universal abortion”, “Contraceptives not to abort,” and “They are my ovaries”, among other messages.
Health Minister Mónica García said that those attending the summit were making “anti-scientific speeches to justify attacks on women’s rights”. We are not going backwards, she said, and called for free, safe and public provision of abortion”. Meanwhile, Equality Minister Ana Redondo (PSOE) said it was “intolerable” that the Spanish Senate had been turned into “a theme park for the extreme right against women’s reproductive and sexual rights” throughout Monday, EFE reported. Government spokeswoman Pilar Alegría also expressed the executive’s strong rejection of the meeting: “The Senate belongs to everyone and ‘cannot host those who propagate speeches against human rights and constitutional values’,” she said.
Abortion is legal in Spain, and a new law has been in force since February 2023, amending the previous law of 2020.
SOURCE: EUROACTIV, by Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.Euractiv.es, 3 December 2024.
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Spain to enshrine gay marriage and abortion rights into the Constitution so “they cannot be undone in the future”
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez vowed on 6 December to add abortion rights and gay marriage to Spain’s Constitution so they “can never be undone”. The left-wing PSOE leader made the announcement at an event marking the 46th anniversary of the Spanish Magna Carta – when the country left behind the Franco dictatorship and installed a parliamentary democracy. “We believe that these are rights that we must protect in the Constitution so that no one can touch them in the future”.
In an apparent shot at far-right forces, he added: “The PSOE has proposed constitutional reforms to protect rights against a reactionary force which calls into question rights as important as abortion, marriage between persons of the same sex (…) and the revaluation of pensions.” He insisted Spain ‘is experiencing one of its best moments in contemporary history’, adding that his government has managed to get many laws passed.
Looking ahead to the next general election in 2027, Sanchez vowed to ‘continue moving forward’ and to inspire people to vote for a Spain ‘better than it is today’, with ‘more social cohesion, job growth and reduction of inequalities.’
SOURCE: The Olive Press, by Laurence Dollimore, December 2024. PHOTO: Javier Soriano/AFP via Getty Images in Foreign Policy, July 2023.