Spain's Equality Minister to take abortion reform to next Cabinet meeting

Spain's Equality Minister to take abortion reform to next Cabinet meeting
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By m.p. - Sep 20, 2009 - 2:46 PM
A leading opposition politician has announced that he will be attending a march against the controversial amendments next month

Equality Minister, Bibiana Aído - EFE

The Equality Minister says she hopes to take the government’s planned reform of the Abortion Law to the next Cabinet meeting, next Friday, after the Consejo de Estado accepted last week that the reforms are constitutional. They recommended, however, that parents should be involved if an underage girl wants to terminate her pregnancy unless there are well-founded reasons that would cause a serious conflict at home if her parents were informed.

The government proposes to allow unconditional abortion at 14 weeks from the age of 16 without parental consent, in a major overhaul of the current legislation which has been in place since 1988. The law currently states that abortion is only permitted in the case of rape, if the foetus is seriously deformed, or if there is a risk to the mother’s physical or mental health.

Speaking to EFE, Minister Bibiana Aído said that, while she sees the draft bill as the ‘best of all the possibles’, greater consensus is needed if it is to be approved by parliament.

A protest march against the reforms has been announced in Madrid next month, and the former Partido Popular Minister for the Interior, Jaime Mayor Oreja, has told Europa Press this weekend that he will be taking part.

Jaime Mayor Oreja – EFE archive

He led the party’s list of candidates at the European elections, and is the first politician from the PP leadership to have announced his intention to attend. It takes place on 17th October.

The PP leader, Mariano Rajoy, and the party’s parliamentary spokesperson, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, have both said they will not be there.

Mayor Oreja holds the view, the news agency reports, that the fact that abortion can be considered a right is an ‘aberration’.

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