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Spain Council of State approves proposed abortion reforms

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] The Spanish Council of State unanimously approved on Thursday the proposed law to reform the existing framework that governs abortion in Spain, finding that proposed reforms constitutional. The proposed law would allow women to seek abortions voluntarily until the fourteenth week, and until the twenty-second week if there is risk to the mother's health or severe fetal malformation. The bill would allow women 16 years and older to elect to have an abortion. The Council of State, the highest advisory organ in the executive branch, approved the project in its entirety making only the recommendation that women ages 16-17 should have to notify their parents about the procedure unless they have compelling reasons not to. The Council's approval is the final consultation in the executive branch before the bill, called the Law on Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy and Sexual and Reproductive Health, undergoes a final review by the Council of Ministers. The proposal will then be submitted to the legislative branch, the General Courts, which will have final say over the terms of the law. Current Spanish abortion law dates from 1985, after the end of the Franco regime. It stipulates that abortions may be permitted only in cases of pregnancy from rape, severe fetal malformation, or if the pregnancy would imperil the mother's physical or mental health within the first 12 weeks of the pregnancy. The changes were proposed in March by a panel of legal and medical experts led by the Minister of Equality Bibiano Aido, eliciting widespread protests throughout Spain. The panel was formed last September at the request of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero as part of a series of social reforms including same-sex marriage and streamlined divorce proceedings. The conservative Popular Party has repeatedly expressed the opinion that relaxed abortion laws would stand in opposition to Article 15 of the Spanish Constitution, which guarantees the right to life. Spanish abortion laws are among the most restrictive in European nations.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on September 18, 2009 (boomark / email).