A controversial initiative by far-right party Vox to help prevent abortions in Castilla-León has sparked a bitter controversy with the party’s local partner, centre-right Partido Popular (PP/EPP), and put both conservative formations on a dangerous collision course with the progressive Executive in Madrid.
Far-right Vox, currently the third force in the Spanish Parliament, governs in the Castilla y León region in a coalition with the PP, a political mix which may be explored in the near future at a national level.
Vox (ECR) wants to offer pregnant women who may be considering abortion in Castilla y León a fourth ultrasound test (in 4D) in the first trimester of pregnancy.
With the move, the far-right party hopes to offer parents the opportunity to listen to the baby’s heartbeat and prevent them from taking the decision to abort.
In May, Spain will hold municipal elections, which many see as the first litmus test for socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s governing coalition with left-wing Unidas-Podemos. After that, the parties will have to face the general election set for December.
The initiative was last week proposed by Castilla and León Vice president, Juan Garcia Gallardo (Vox), but on Monday the region’s president, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco (PP), denied the regional Executives’ intention to make it compulsory.
The “fetal heartbeat protocol” will be offered to women who are between six and nine weeks pregnant, García-Gallardo explained, with the objective of allowing the parents to emotionally bond with their baby.
“Doctors won’t be forced to do anything, pregnant women won’t be forced to do anything”, Fernández Mañueco stated Monday.
However, Vox’s spokesperson in Parliament, Iván Espinosa de Los Monteros, warned on Tuesday that his party is ready to “evaluate” the pact with the PP in Castilla y León if Alfonso Fernández Mañueco does not respect the agreement between both parties on anti-abortion measures, EFE reported.
“The conditions of the pact will be reviewed and we will act accordingly”, Espinosa de Los Monteros said at a press conference after confirming that this does not mean leaving the Castile-León government, but it does mean “re-evaluating” the pact.
Meanwhile, Vox’s Secretary General, Ignacio Garriga, said on Tuesday that his party “will not take any step back” on the anti-abortion plan, as he stressed in an interview aired by the Spanish public television RTVE.
In Spain, voluntary abortions are legal in the first 14 weeks of gestation or later on if the pregnancy poses a health threat.
The country changed its abortion legislation in 2022, and approved, among other measures, the right to seek an abortion in the country’s free public healthcare system and scrap the requirement for 16-year-olds and above to obtain parental consent, a measure that was introduced by the former conservative government (PP) in 2015.
(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.EURACTIV.es)
Source: euractiv.com
