PP and abortion: we are all responsible

Marina Subirats
3 min
Tots en som responsables

Once again, women’s rights are being used by political parties for their own ends. Suddenly, the PP remembers all the electoral promises they have failed to fulfill and, in order to reverse the situation, decides to target one of the weakest groups: young pregnant women who have no family support. The proposed amendment to the Spanish abortion law will require 16 and 17 year old girls to obtain the consent of (and be accompanied by) their parents or legal guardian in order to have an abortion. With this move, the PP is hoping to make up for the earlier fiasco of their failed abortion law, which upset pro-life groups in Spain, regardless of the negative consequences of their decision.

How come some young women face such a difficult time all by themselves? How many of them will be affected by this change in legislation? A survey conducted in 22 abortion clinics shows that 25,394 women had an abortion between January and September last year. Only 3.6 per cent of them were aged 16-17. A total of 113 were unaccompanied and had no parental consent, which accounts for 12.38 per cent of all abortions in this age group and 0.44 per cent of the overall number of abortions performed in that period of time. This figure is somewhat lower than in previous years and --compared to other countries in our vicinity-- it is relatively low because in our society family support at difficult times remains strong.

Therefore, we are talking about a very small minority, the most fragile and vulnerable. The reasons why they were not accompanied and did not receive parental consent are serious: broken homes, parents who are serving a prison sentence or find themselves in a position where they cannot make decisions (dementia, drug addiction), risk of physical abuse, foreigners without a family, and parents who --for some reason-- refuse to accompany their daughter. As we can see, these are situations where girls are unprotected and getting on with their own lives is probably hard enough. I have heard some stories that made my stomach turn, tragedies that you would expect from a third world country. In other words, these are situations where it is the girl who needs help and she would never be able to be a good parent for her baby. Of course, then there are cases where the pregnancy follows sexual abuse, sometimes even within the family: girls who have been raped by their father, grandfather or other relatives, and their own family is ready to punish her, if she blows the whistle.

The PP’s argument is farcical: the changes are for the sake of women, to protect their health, to force their parents or legal guardians to take care of them. We know --and the clinics that carried out the survey have warned us about it-- that to deny someone an abortion in that situation can actually destroy their health rather than improve it. Back room abortions in subpar conditions, suicide, desperation that can cause them to do something foolish, resulting in great harm or even death. Who will take responsibility for these actions? Can we just voice our disagreement without demanding responsibilities for any hypothetical consequences? Between January and September last year, 113 young women were taken care of in good conditions. Society did not fail them, did not leave them high and dry to fend for themselves, pointing a finger and saying “told you so”. This year, though, we will fail them. Some of the next 113 women will die during their procedure. Of course, we will never hear about it and the PP will have fulfilled their vows. Well, some of them, of course!

We must find a way for politicians to be held accountable for cases like these, not just in general but for specific individuals. The political parties that support the amendment because it suits them must be held accountable. Indeed the PP, but also CiU, whose MPs have been granted freedom to vote on the matter as they prefer. We simply cannot grant the political parties life-of-death powers when their sole purpose is to hang on to public office no matter what it takes. All of us have a political responsibility on our collective affairs, even if we are not lawmakers: we are responsible for our ballot, for the representatives we elect or we fail to elect, if we choose not to vote. Every girl who dies this year because we have failed to give her a 21st century society will mainly be a victim of the PP’s selfishness, but her death will also be on our heads to some extent, because we were fools when we allowed ourselves to be ruled by individuals who care very little about our life or death. Many women understand this and that is why, from day one, we have used every means possible to stop the PP’s amendment to the abortion law.

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