Production: By Europod, in co-production with Sphera Network.
EUobserver is proud to have an editorial partnership with Europod to co-publish the podcast series “Briefed” hosted by Léa Marchal. The podcast is available on all major platforms.
You can find the transcript here if you prefer reading:
In Spain, abortion is back in the political and legal spotlight.
A court ruling has just ordered the city of Madrid to create a registry of conscientious objectors. These are doctors in the region who refuse to perform abortion procedures.
Are there still many of these conscientious objectors in Spain and across Europe?
“The ministry of health has had to take the community of Madrid to court to ensure it complies with the law on sexual and reproductive health.”
That’s how the Spanish outlet El Salto, a member of the Sphera Network alongside Europod, sums up the judicial and political battle between the Community of Madrid and the government.
On Monday, the High Court of Justice of Madrid ordered the city’s authorities to “immediately” start creating a registry of doctors who object to performing abortions.
Where does this registry come from?
In Spain, abortion is legal up to 14 weeks of pregnancy, but doctors have the right to say they do not wish to be involved in any abortion procedure. This is known as the right to conscientious objection.
To try to reduce the barriers to women’s access to abortion created by conscientious objection, the Spanish government introduced in 2023 the obligation for all autonomous communities to establish a list of conscientious objectors.
This registry is not accessible to patients. But it allows healthcare centres to allocate staff who can replace conscientious objectors. The objective is to guarantee access to abortion for every woman in every region of Spain.
However, some regional governments have refused to comply with this rule.
The president of the community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, stated in October that she would not create a “blacklist of doctors”, and that women could “go abort somewhere else”, El Salto reports.
How widespread are conscientious objectors in Spain?
Three regional communities in Spain have not yet created the registry: Aragón, the Balearic Islands, and Madrid. However, since the ministry of health asked them to comply in October last year, Aragón and the Balearic Islands have agreed to do so, according to El Salto. Only Madrid has refused — hence the lawsuit.
The number of conscientious objectors in Spain is not known. What we do know is that more than 80 percent of abortions are performed in private clinics — a figure that rises to 99 percent in Madrid.
What is the situation in other EU countries?
The situation varies across Europe. Similar conscientious objection provisions exist in most countries on the continent. Only Sweden, Finland, and Bulgaria do not allow healthcare providers to refuse to participate in abortions.
But in Italy, in some regions up to 90 percent of healthcare workers and doctors refuse to perform or assist in abortions thanks to the conscientious objection clause. In practice, this makes it almost impossible for women to terminate their pregnancies in some regions and forces them to travel elsewhere.
The issue is also widespread in Croatia, where more than 50 percent of doctors invoke conscientious objection, according to various reports.
Along with abortion bans in Malta and Poland, the high number of conscientious objectors in some countries is one of the factors limiting abortion access across the continent.
This is why more than 1.2 million European citizens have asked the EU to create a financial mechanism to support women who cannot terminate their pregnancies in their own country.
This initiative — which I detailed in the Briefed episode of 2 February — has now received a positive response from the European Commission. Member states may use an existing fund, the European Social Fund Plus, to grant free abortion services to women who are not covered by their national healthcare systems.
And with that, we wrap up this last episode of the week.