BY JENNIFER O’MAHONY AND CIARÁN GILES, ASSOCIATED PRESS
MARCH 1, 2023
MADRID — The Spanish parliament on Thursday approved legislation expanding abortion and transgender rights for teenagers, while making Spain the first country in Europe that will entitle workers to paid menstrual leave.
The driving force behind the two laws was Equality Minister Irene Montero of United We Can, the junior party in Spain’s left-wing coalition government.
Measures allow workers suffering period pain to take paid time off, as right to abortions in state hospitals is enshrined.
16 Feb 2023
Madrid has approved legislation expanding abortion and transgender rights for teenagers, while making Spain the first country in Europe that will entitle workers to paid menstrual leave.
The driving force behind the two laws was equality minister Irene Montero, who belongs to the junior member in Spain’s left-wing coalition government, the “United We Can” Party.
Continued: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/2/16/spain-approves-menstrual-leave-teen-abortion-and-trans-laws
Feb 8, 2023
MADRID (AP) — Spain’s constitutional court on Thursday rejected a challenge lodged more than a decade ago by the conservative Popular Party against a law allowing abortions in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy.
The legal challenge had “not obtained the support” of the court, the verdict said. The main opposition PP’s legal argument had centered on the constitutionality of the right to life of the fetus.
Continued: https://apnews.com/article/abortion-politics-spain-health-4eec2248a76f7b0440e3f718b556d608
Leader of Castilla y León region defies proposals by Vox partner that prompted legal action by central government
Sam Jones in Madrid
Tue 17 Jan 2023
The conservative leader of Spain’s Castilla y León region has defied his far-right coalition partners by insisting that a series of controversial anti-abortion protocols that prompted the central government to launch legal action will not be enacted.
Last week the far-right Vox party, which governs Castilla y León in coalition with the larger conservative People’s party (PP), announced “pro-life” proposals that would oblige doctors to offer women seeking terminations a 4D scan, a chance to listen to the foetal heartbeat, and a psychological consultation.
Initiative includes making it obligatory for clinics to offer pregnant women chance to listen to foetus’s heartbeat
Guy Hedgecoe in Madrid
Mon Jan 16 2023
A contentious policy announcement on abortion by a regional wing of Spain’s far-right Vox party has led to it being overruled by its coalition partner after being threatened with legal action by the central government.
Last week, Vox’s vice-president of the Castilla y León region, Juan García-Gallardo, unveiled an initiative which would make it obligatory for clinics to offer women the chance to listen to their unborn baby’s heartbeat or see a scan before proceeding with a termination.
Jan 12, 2023
MADRID (AP) — A regional government’s move to restrict abortion rights in a large part of central Spain reignited debate Friday on the issue in the southern European country, in the runup to this year’s local elections.
Under the new measures adopted by the conservative and far-right coalition governing the Castile and Leon region, women seeking an abortion there must be offered optional access to unsolicited resources by doctors before starting the procedure.
Continued: https://apnews.com/article/abortion-health-spain-government-e381fcb485ffb887581752945ce35f98
By Euronews and AFP
Updated: 15/12/2022
Spanish lawmakers adopted on Thursday a new bill creating a menstrual leave for women suffering from painful periods and strengthening access to abortion in public hospitals.
This text was adopted by deputies in the lower house of the Spanish parliament on its first reading, with 190 votes in favour, 154 against, and 5 abstentions. It will now go to the Senate.
"This legislature is a legislature of feminist conquests," Irene Montero, Spain's Minister of Equality and a member of the radical left-wing Podemos, a party allied with socialist prime minister Pedro Sanchez's government, told the Congress of Deputies.
December 15, 2022
Reuters
MADRID - Spain's parliament on Thursday passed a sexual and reproductive health law that allows girls aged 16 and 17 to undergo abortions without parental consent and, in a first for a European country, offers state-funded paid leave for women who suffer from painful periods.
"These advancements allow us to exercise freedom over our bodies, with the state recognising the full citizenship of more than half the population," Equality Minister Irene Montero told lawmakers before the vote, which was adopted with a 190-154 majority and five abstentions.
With protests against abortion rights becoming increasingly aggressive, countries such as England, Wales and Spain are drawing up laws to protect people at clinics.
Ines Eisele
October 23, 2022
On January 20, 2023, hundreds of thousands of opponents of abortion rights are expected to gather in the US capital, Washington D.C., for the "March for Life." The march takes place annually on or around the anniversary of the January 22, 1973, Roe v. Wade decision, which had protected abortion rights in the United States until this June, when the US Supreme Court overturned the decision. Several states have since further restricted abortion.
Though the march is the biggest and most famous anti-abortion event, there are many such rallies in the United States and around the world. Many organizations that were founded to oppose abortion rights in the United States now have branches abroad. One of the biggest organizations in the world for opponents of reproductive rights is 40 Days for Life, a Christian organization that campaigns against abortion in dozens of countries.
Continued: https://www.dw.com/en/us-style-anti-abortion-protests-are-spreading-to-europe/a-63528128
How rights group Women On Web is resisting digital attacks on reproductive rights
Venny Ala-Siurua
14 October 2022
More and more people are looking on the internet for information about sexual and reproductive health and accessing these services online. For young people, the internet is an important, if not the only, resource for this information. This is why criminalising and restricting abortion is not the only way to attack abortion rights today. Limiting or banning information about abortion or putting out deliberately confusing material can have a devastating impact on abortion access.
Since 2005, Women on Web, where I am the executive director, has used the internet and digital technology to break down the barriers. We have provided more than 100,000 safe medical abortion services. Our website offers comprehensive and easy-to-read information about abortion in 27 languages and our multinational helpdesk team has responded to more than a million emails in 16 different languages in the past 17 years.
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