A draft of Spain’s reformed abortion bill has ignited the Catholic Church, which called its congregation as well as the Catholic politicians to vote against the bill even though it has not yet been submitted to Congress.

The bill reflects the recommendations of the Spanish parliamentary commission, which for six months examined the effect of Spain’s restrictive abortion laws. Last February, the parliamentary commission proposed a reform decriminalizing abortion in Spain so abortion would be removed from the Penal Code and included under the sexual health regulations.

The report, along with one issued by the expert panel of doctors, lawyers, academics and government representatives appointed by the Spanish government in September 2008, is at the base of the draft abortion reform bill to be introduced in the legislature this year.

The proposed reform authorizes free abortion between the 14^{th and 22_nd week of pregnancy if a medical certification states risks for the mother or the baby. Moreover, it would allow16-year-old girls to have an abortion without consent of their parents. In addition, it states that providers’ conscience objections cannot become an obstacle for women’s access to the medical proceeding in the public health system.}

Since 1985, abortion has been legal in Spain only in instances of rape, severe fetal abnormalities or if the mother’s mental or physical health is at risk. However, Spanish women have to struggle to get a medical certification or a police report (in case of rape) in order to access a legal abortion, which is why women prefer to travel to London if they can afford it to end their unwanted pregnancies. Those who get the required document for legal abortion often have to pay a private clinic because doctors in the state health service refuse. In fact, the public system performs only 3 percent of the 112,000 abortions performed in Spain each year.

This situation seemed discriminatory by the defenders of the voluntary termination of pregnancy, and inequitable for the Socialist Party.

The proposed bill is in line with other sexual and reproductive reforms carried out by Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero such as the free sale of the emergency contraception pill in pharmacies without prescription.

The question now is does the Catholic Church have the influence required to stop the abortion reform?

One can realize that Spain is no longer the bastion of the Catholic Church if we take into account other reforms promoted and approved by Zapatero’s Socialist government such as the full marriage rights for gay couples, the facilitation of divorce proceedings, embryonic stem cells research authorization and the removal of Catholicism being taught at public schools.

Looking at society, several polls are showing a secular trend. According to an annual survey by sociologist Juan Díez-Nicolás, president of Asep research institute, less than 25 percent of Spaniards say they practice Catholicism beyond social events like weddings and baptisms.

Regarding abortion, the daily El País carried out a survey that found 65 percent of Spaniards support abortion in the first three months.

The Catholic Church is not alone in its campaign against abortion. Pro-life activists are checking the activities of the clinics accredited for voluntary termination of pregnancies. As a result of their formal complaints, police investigations have opened files against various clinics, but defenders of the proposed reform are not sleeping.

In order to promote the abortion law, they started a YouTube channel, called “A favor 2009, Por el Cambio de la Ley en España” (In favor 2009, for the change of Spanish law), which can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/user/afavor2009.