By Martin Delfin, Memo from Madrid
T
he Popular Party is once again showing us that it doesn’t respect law and order when it comes to disagreeing with the Socialists. The latest chapter in the PP’s open defiance centres on the new abortion law that went into effect on Monday. Mariano Rajoy, the opposition leader, has decided to allow the leaders in regions governed by the PP to openly object to implementing the new regulations that concern the termination of early pregnancies.
The government has lifted the three restrictions that before this week made it possible for women to get an abortion – when the mother’s health is in jeopardy, foetus malformation, and cases of rape. Now under the rules, women are free to undergo the procedure up to their 14th week of pregnancy. Between the 15th and 22nd week, abortions would only be performed if doctors determine that the mother’s life is in danger. From then on, pregnancies would be terminated if the foetus is severely malformed. Girls aged 16 and 17 will be able to get an abortion without their parents’ or guardians’ consent but they would have to be informed. Abortion is now a woman’s guaranteed right.
But the law is much more than setting down a set of rules; it also calls for the education, prevention and awareness of unwanted pregnancies in Spain , which in 2008 rose to 115,812 – a 3.2% hike from the previous year. The government hopes the new law, combined with an educational campaign managed by the regional governments, will curtail the number of unwanted pregnancies. But the PP and other conservative groups prefer that we all be transported in a time machine back to the Victorian period when sex was hardly discussed even in whispers. They don’t like the idea of sex education in the classrooms, saying instead that parents should be the ones who teach their children.
So now the rebellion has been ignited. Murcia’s PP regional premier Ramón Luis Válcarcel fired the first shot by announcing on Monday that there “are no reasons” to obey the new law because “we haven’t reached the end point.” Galicia , another PP stronghold, said it won’t give out any information to women as to the types of government assistance they are entitled to help them before and in the aftermath of an abortion, as per the new rules state. But it is not only the PP. The holier-than-thou Navarre region, governed in a coalition by the Socialists and Navarre UPN nationalists party and where no abortions are performed even though Spain legalised the medical procedure 25 years ago, have filed a case with the Constitutional Court to prevent the new law from being applied there. The last time I checked, all of these revolting regions were still part of Spain and had to follow the laws of the land. It is amazing that, with the exception of some quirky places like Belgium and second or third world nations, there are still areas of a European nation which refused to do what their government says and appear to get away with.
Now the PP wants the Constitutional Court to issue an injunction as the judges weigh in the abortion law but it appears this will not occur. The PP has filed a lawsuit along with other conservative groups, but the party has handed down its own judicial ruling telling its followers to stand defiant against what had been approved by the majority in Congress. The Equality Ministry cautions that it can sanction regions that refuse to apply the law. But stronger methods are needed: the government should and must prosecute those who don’t follow the new abortion law and try to keep women from attaining their guaranteed rights. All of this defiance doesn’t help. The PP and its fellow plaintiffs in the abortion law case need to let the courts decide what is constitutional and what is not, and stop thumbing its nose at the Socialist government by invoking a dangerous precedent to encourage others to break the law.
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