If
you were a Martian and had landed in Spain just in time to see the TV
News at 8, 8.30 and 9 this morning, you could be forgiven for
thinking nothing happened yesterday except the huge lottery (The
Fat One) which disgorged billions in prizes around the country.
Though very little in poor old Galicia, it seems. As a sign of the
(desperate) times, the government will be taking 20% of your winnings
over 200,000 this year. Well, why not? You won't feel it.
When
I went down to breakfast, there were 2 couples there.
Being Spanish, and in obedience to the Spanish Law of Aglommeration,
they were sitting at adjacent tables rather three tables away from each other, as
British couples would have done. And, of course, they were
unconcerned that their conversations were overheard by the rest of
us. And quite possibly in the street.
The
last time Spanish domestic policies merited a leader in The Times was
possibly during the 1930s but I leave you this morning with this long
commentary on the changes in the abortion law here. I don't imagine
for a second that President Rajoy will be taking any notice of them.
After all, 81% of Spaniards are said to be against the change and he
clearly doesn't give a toss about them:
Abuse
of Power
Spain’s
proposed restrictions on abortion will damage women’s health and
family life
Edmund
Burke argued that “very plausible schemes, with very pleasing
commencements, have often shameful and lamentable conclusions”. The
conservative Government of Mariano Rajoy in Spain is giving a modern
twist to this maxim by stringently tightening the country’s
abortion laws. It proposed a bill last week that removes a woman’s
right to early termination of pregnancy. It would allow abortion only
in cases of rape or when the mother’s health is endangered.
The
scheme is plausible to only a small minority. It breaches a principle
of democratic politics by supplanting individual citizens’ private
judgments with state fiat. It will erode pluralism, restrict liberty,
retard the position of women in Spanish society, damage family life
and inflict psychological and physical harm on women in sometimes
desperate circumstances. It is a bad law that will have predictably
lamentable consequences.
Legislation
for legal and safe abortions is standard in most of Europe. It dates
principally from the 1960s (as in Britain) or a bit later. With its
relatively recent transition from dictatorship to stable and
well-governed constitutional democracy in 1978, Spain was slightly
later than other EU countries in adopting this type of provision.
There
were no abortion laws in Spain (excepting a brief period in Catalonia
during the civil war from 1936-39) until 1985. Legislation passed in
that year allowed abortion up to 12 weeks of pregnancy in cases of
rape, up to 22 weeks in cases of foetal malformation, or in cases
where the mother’s mental or physical health was at risk in
carrying a pregnancy to term.
Though
it was in many ways undistinguished, the Socialist Government of Jose
Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Mr Rajoy’s predecessor, nonetheless
accomplished a few valuable social reforms. One was to pass, in 2010,
an extension of the existing law on abortion. This recent
liberalisation allows abortion on request up to 14 weeks, and up to
22 weeks where the mother’s health is at risk or the foetus shows
signs of serious deformity.
The
proposals by Mr Rajoy’s Government reverse this legislation. Though
the Government protests that no woman will be prosecuted for having
an abortion, that defence is weak. Doctors will be open to
prosecution and will face up to three years’ imprisonment if they
perform abortions considered illegal. They will thus be wary of
performing abortions at all.
This
legislation will not reduce the number of abortions performed on
Spanish women. It will force abortion overseas, for those who can
afford it, and underground, in dangerous and insanitary conditions,
for those who cannot.
Some
people hold strong ethical objections to the termination of pregnancy
(including the Catholic Church, which has supported the Spanish
Government on this issue). It is a minority view, however. Opinion
polls show that most Spanish voters favour the law as it is. Even if
this were not the case, the bill would remain iniquitous.
To
bring the criminal law into an issue of women’s health and
conscientious reflection is an abuse of government power. A
constitutional society does not intrude into areas of personal
judgment that most citizens consider fall within the authority of the
family. Social engineering is the practice of autocratic governments.
Spain’s friends and allies in Europe should prevail on Mr Rajoy to
think again.
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