Spanish prolifers urge publication of 2010 Constitional Court ruling on abortion law

Madrid, Spain, Aug 23, 2021 / 17:00 pm

Pro-lifers in Spain demand "no more silence" from Constitutional Court on their unpublished 2010 ruling on abortion law.

Various pro-life organizations gathered Friday at the Constitutional Court in Spain demanding that it release its 2010 ruling on the unconstitutionality of the abortion law that it never made public. 

Right to Live, one of the organizations present at the Aug. 20 demonstration, demanded on Twitter to the justices of the Constitutional Court "not be cowards and make public the ruling on the appeal against the abortion law."

Passed in February 2010 and promulgated a month later during the 2004-2011 administration of Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party, the “law on sexual and reproductive health and the voluntary interruption of pregnancy” opened the doors to abortion on demand in Spain.

On June 1, 2010, the People’s Party filed an appeal with the Constitutional Court challenging the constitutionality of the law.  Eleven years later, the ruling has not been made public.

A campaign launched on the HazteOír platform has garnered more than 20,000 signatures demanding “no more silence.” 

The current government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, also a PSOE member, is afraid the Constitutional Court’s ruling could overturn the abortion law. 

According to the EFE news agency, “the Minister of Equality, Irene Montero, fears the possibility that the Constitutional Court will cut back the abortion law by reactivating the deliberations on the appeal filed by the People’s Party more than a decade ago and has reminded the court that this is a matter of a basic right of pregnant women.”

The HazteOír campagn says that the Constitutional Court would have its ruling "kept in a drawer" because "it declares the abortion law to be unconstitutional."

For the thousands who have signed the petition, the Constitutional Court “is afraid. For 11 years it has been silent for fear of power, of that Left that wants to kill human embryos without any restrictions.”

The justices, HazteOir points out, "need a push", so the platform is  encouraging people to send "your message to the Constitutional Court and tell them that it’s time for them to make public the ruling against the abortion law."

Spain legalized abortion in 1985. The law, which was last amended in 2015, permits elective abortion up to 14 weeks of pregnancy, and up to 22 weeks for fetal abnormalities and serious risk to a mother’s health.

Spain’s Ministry of Health reported that 99,149 abortions were performed in 2019, 3,232 more than in 2018.