Thousands of people demonstrated against abortion in Madrid on Sunday after the platform “Sí a la vida” (Yes to life) called for it. A mobilization that comes just weeks after the Spanish Parliament voted on a law expanding access to voluntary abortion.
According to the local authorities, there were 23,000 demonstrators with green balloons with the inscription “Yes to life” and banners that read, for example, “A person from 0 to 100 years”. “We came to support a good cause,” said Iván Espinosa de los Monteros, spokesman for the far-right Vox party in the House of Representatives.
He accused Pedro Sánchez’s left-wing government of promoting “death laws”. On February 16, MPs passed a law increasing access to abortions in public hospitals, which perform less than 15% of abortions in Spain, largely due to widespread conscientious objection among doctors.
Due to this situation and also the lack of a specialized clinic nearby, women sometimes have to travel hundreds of kilometers for an abortion. This law also allows minors aged 16 and over to have an abortion without their parents’ consent and introduces “menstrual leave” for women suffering from painful periods, an unprecedented measure in Europe.