Abortion opponents could be jailed for ‘harassment’

On Wednesday, April 6, the Spanish Senate finally adopted a penal code reform that would allow anti-abortion activists to be imprisoned for “harassing” women seeking abortions. They can receive sentences ranging from three months to one year in prison or community service for their commission An obstacle to exercising the right to voluntary termination of pregnancy Across “Acts that are disturbing, aggressive, disruptive or stressful.” Harassment of nursing staff is punishable by the same penalties.

The Socialist Party of the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, was behind this text. According to a 2018 report by the Association of Clinics Authorized to Perform Abortion, 89% of women wanting to have an abortion in Spain say they have been harassed and threatened, 66%.

Abortion was decriminalized in Spain in 1985, but it was not until 2010 that the country legalized abortion without medical justification until 14 weeks after the last menstrual period (amenorrhea). Abortion truly remains full of pitfalls in this country with a strong Catholic tradition, where the conscientious objection of doctors is great and where the anti-abortion movements are very active. These groups meet frequently in front of clinics to try to persuade women not to have abortions by showing them plastic embryos or placing them in cars equipped with ultrasound machines.