{"id":135956,"date":"2025-10-21T11:42:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T11:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/135956\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T11:42:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T11:42:07","slug":"spanish-move-to-list-doctors-who-refuse-to-terminate-pregnancies-sparks-political-storm-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/135956\/","title":{"rendered":"Spanish move to list doctors who refuse to terminate pregnancies sparks political storm \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A dispute over the listing of doctors who refuse to terminate pregnancies has thrust abortion<\/a> back into the Spanish political arena, 40 years after it was decriminalised.<\/p>\n

The left-wing coalition government of Pedro S\u00e1nchez<\/a> 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. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

In a letter to the regional governments which had not yet complied, Mr S\u00e1nchez wrote that the lists aimed to \u201chelp overcome obstacles which, unfortunately, many women in our country who decide to exercise their right to terminate their pregnancies still come up against\u201d.<\/p>\n

Although three regions which had not drawn up their lists, Asturias, the Balearic Islands and Arag\u00f3n, have told the central government that they will do so, the Madrid region has refused to comply. <\/p>\n

The region\u2019s president, Isabel D\u00edaz Ayuso, responded defiantly to the prime minister.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho does he think he is, speaking for all women,\u201d Ms D\u00edaz Ayuso, of the conservative People\u2019s Party (PP), said. \u201cDoes he think he is God, speaking for life with that frivolousness?\u201d<\/p>\n

Recalling that she had suffered two miscarriages, Ms D\u00edaz Ayuso said that Mr S\u00e1nchez had addressed the abortion issue \u201cwith the tone of a little chauvinist\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a separate speech before the Madrid regional parliament, Ms D\u00edaz Ayuso advised women to \u201cgo elsewhere\u201d to have a termination.<\/p>\n

Abortion was decriminalised in Spain in 1985 and a 2010 law made it more widely available. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

The outspoken current stance of Ms D\u00edaz Ayuso, a maverick figure in the party, therefore, is uncomfortable for its national leadership.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Spanish abortion reform opens unwelcome debate for conservativesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

PP leader Alberto N\u00fa\u00f1ez Feij\u00f3o has avoided criticising Ms D\u00edaz Ayuso and instead responded to the controversy by proposing a register of doctors who are willing to carry out terminations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe important thing is that women know which gynaecologists and obstetricians are available to them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"MadridMadrid regional president Isabel D\u00edaz Ayuso and People’s Party leader Alberto N\u00fa\u00f1ez Feij\u00f3o. Photograph: Thomas Coex\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

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 \u201cpost-abortion syndrome\u201d, which supposedly led to increased consumption of drugs and alcohol and increased risk of cancer. <\/p>\n

Scientists have said the syndrome does not exist and the mayor, Jos\u00e9 Luis Mart\u00ednez-Almeida, has admitted the initiative was a mistake.<\/p>\n

Mr S\u00e1nchez 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.<\/p>\n

El Pa\u00eds newspaper said that the government\u2019s proposal made sense, although it had a political edge because of how uncomfortable the issue remains for Mr Feij\u00f3o and his party.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that S\u00e1nchez\u2019s decision is an audacious show aimed at cornering the leader of the opposition does not mean it isn\u2019t timely or that it doesn\u2019t have enormous democratic importance,\u201d it said in an editorial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A dispute over the listing of doctors who refuse to terminate pregnancies has thrust abortion back into the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,81065,383,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-135956","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-featured-news","11":"tag-featurednews","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-latest-news","14":"tag-latestnews","15":"tag-main-news","16":"tag-mainnews","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-pedro-sanchez","19":"tag-spain","20":"tag-top-stories","21":"tag-topstories","22":"tag-world","23":"tag-world-news","24":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}