Thousands of people demonstrated against abortion on Sunday in Madrid, at the call of the platform “Sí a la vida” (Yes to life). A mobilization that comes a few weeks after the vote by the Spanish Parliament of a law expanding access to voluntary termination of pregnancy.
Holding green balloons with the slogan “Yes to life” and banners on which was written, for example, “A human, from 0 to 100 years old”, the protesters were 23,000 according to local authorities. “We came to support a good cause,” said Iván Espinosa de los Monteros, spokesman for the far-right Vox party in the Congress of Deputies.
He accused Pedro Sánchez’s leftist government of promoting “death laws”. On February 16, MPs passed a law strengthening access to abortion in public hospitals, which perform less than 15% of abortions in Spain, due in particular to massive conscientious objection from doctors.
Because of this situation and also the absence of a specialized clinic nearby, women sometimes have to travel hundreds of kilometers for an abortion. This law also allows minors to abort without their parents’ authorization from the age of 16, and establishes a “menstrual leave” for women suffering from painful periods, an unprecedented measure in Europe.