MADRID (Reuters) – Spain’s parliament on Thursday handed a sexual and reproductive well being regulation that enables women aged 16 and 17 to endure abortions with out parental consent and, in a primary for a European nation, gives state-funded paid depart for girls who are suffering from painful durations.
“These developments permit us to train freedom over our our bodies, with the state recognizing the total citizenship of greater than half the inhabitants,” Equality Minister Irene Montero advised lawmakers earlier than the vote, which was adopted with a 190-154 majority and 5 abstentions.
The nation’s leftist coalition authorities had launched the invoice – opposed by anti-abortion activists and the Catholic Church – in Could with the intention of guaranteeing abortion entry and destigmatizing menstrual well being.
The brand new regulation removes a compulsory three-day “reflection” interval for girls who want to terminate their being pregnant and eliminates the necessity for these aged 16-17 to acquire the consent of a mother or father or guardian to abort. This requirement had been put in place by the conservative Individuals’s Social gathering authorities in 2015.
It additionally contains paid depart for pregnant girls from week 39, making certain the distribution of free menstrual merchandise in public establishments similar to faculties, prisons or well being facilities, and designates surrogate pregnancies – that are unlawful in Spain – as a type of violence towards girls.
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Lourdes Mendez from the far-right social gathering Vox stated that by declaring abortion a human proper, the regulation violated the structure and turned Spain’s system of values the wrong way up.
“Within the face of an unplanned being pregnant or a child that could be born with a incapacity, there is just one approach out: the elimination of the lifetime of her little one,” she stated.
Sonia Lamas, a spokesperson for the ladies’s well being clinic Dator, advised Reuters in an interview in Could that the clinic welcomed these measures.
The so-called reflection interval was pointless as a result of “girls make very knowledgeable choices and we needn’t mirror on one thing that we’ve already determined”, she added.
The clinic has confronted protests by abortion opponents who commonly maintain group prayers and stage demonstrations in entrance of the constructing.
Lamas stated the teams performed campaigns “to method girls in areas similar to the doorway of accredited clinics – which needs to be secure areas”.
The regulation is now headed for the higher home for ultimate approval.
(Reporting by David Latona, Susana Vera and Elena Rodríguez; Enhancing by William Maclean)
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