A dispute over the listing of doctors who refuse to terminate pregnancies has thrust abortion back into the Spanish political arena, 40 years after it was decriminalised.
The left-wing coalition government of Pedro Sánchez has called for regional governments to comply with a law obliging them to draw up registers of doctors who, for reasons of conscience, prefer not to perform abortions.
The lists are not made public and allow personnel to be redistributed. The government argues that they facilitate access to clinics where abortions are available.
In a letter to the regional governments which had not yet complied, Mr Sánchez wrote that the lists aimed to “help overcome obstacles which, unfortunately, many women in our country who decide to exercise their right to terminate their pregnancies still come up against”.
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Although three regions which had not drawn up their lists, Asturias, the Balearic Islands and Aragón, have told the central government that they will do so, the Madrid region has refused to comply.
The region’s president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, responded defiantly to the prime minister.
“Who does he think he is, speaking for all women,” Ms Díaz Ayuso, of the conservative People’s Party (PP), said. “Does he think he is God, speaking for life with that frivolousness?”
Recalling that she had suffered two miscarriages, Ms Díaz Ayuso said that Mr Sánchez had addressed the abortion issue “with the tone of a little chauvinist”.
In a separate speech before the Madrid regional parliament, Ms Díaz Ayuso advised women to “go elsewhere” to have a termination.
Abortion was decriminalised in Spain in 1985 and a 2010 law made it more widely available.
Further changes were made in 2023, allowing girls aged 16 and 17 to abort without parental consent and introducing the mandatory list of doctors who objected to performing the procedure.
Having initially opposed the 2010 abortion law, the PP has since sought to steer clear of the issue, fearful of appearing outdated but also of offending its many Catholic voters.
Critics of the Madrid president have pointed to the fact that she previously defended the right to abortion and that her administration had agreed to participate in the creation of a register of objectors.
The outspoken current stance of Ms Díaz Ayuso, a maverick figure in the party, therefore, is uncomfortable for its national leadership.
[ Spanish abortion reform opens unwelcome debate for conservativesOpens in new window ]
PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo has avoided criticising Ms Díaz Ayuso and instead responded to the controversy by proposing a register of doctors who are willing to carry out terminations.
“The important thing is that women know which gynaecologists and obstetricians are available to them,” he said.
In late September, Madrid city hall, also governed by the PP, accepted a proposal by the far right Vox party to inform women planning to have terminations about a “post-abortion syndrome”, which supposedly led to increased consumption of drugs and alcohol and increased risk of cancer.
Scientists have said the syndrome does not exist and the mayor, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, has admitted the initiative was a mistake.
Mr Sánchez has kept the issue under the spotlight by calling for the right to abortion to be enshrined in the constitution, something which France did in 2024, and his cabinet approved this proposed initiative on Tuesday. However, any such constitutional reform would require the backing of the PP, which is believed to be unlikely.
El País newspaper said that the government’s proposal made sense, although it had a political edge because of how uncomfortable the issue remains for Mr Feijóo and his party.
“The fact that Sánchez’s decision is an audacious show aimed at cornering the leader of the opposition does not mean it isn’t timely or that it doesn’t have enormous democratic importance,” it said in an editorial.
