Spanish abortion law wins final approval by parliament

Feb 24, 2010, 17:50 GMT

Madrid - Spain's senate Wednesday approved controversial legislation easing women's access to abortion, giving a final stamp of approval to the law which will now enter into force within four months.

The lower house of parliament had earlier approved the bill which had been vehemently opposed by the country's Catholic Church.

Senate approved the law with 132 against 126 votes.

Currently, more than 100,000 abortions are performed annually in Spain, nearly always on grounds of damage to the mother's psychological health.

The new law will free women from having to justify abortions in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy, making them available on demand.

The most controversial part of the initial draft law allowed girls as young as 16 to terminate pregnancies without their parents' knowledge.

That part was watered down, allowing minors not to inform at least one of their parents only in extreme cases such as the threat of domestic violence.

Leire Pajin from Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialist Party said the law paid a 'debt' that society had owed women.

Conservative Carmen Duenas, whose People's Party (PP) voted against the law, accused the government of 'not protecting life' in an attack against the family as 'one of the pillars of Spanish society.'

Abortion is opposed most fiercely by Spain's Catholic Church, which has threatened to excommunicate anyone involved in terminating pregnancies. Hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated against abortion last year.