Comments concerning the legislative bill on sexual and reproductive health and voluntary interruption of pregnancy

Abstract

The article examines, from a scientific, legal and ethical standpoint, the bill approved by the Spanish government to amend the law on abortion. The new law would guarantee abortion during the first fourteen weeks of pregnancy. As a result, abortion would go from being a crime to being a woman’s right to terminate the life of her child. However, pursuant to constitutional doctrine and Constitutional Court Ruling 53/1985, the woman’s right does not take absolute precedence over the life of the nasciturus, since that primacy assumes the disappearance of something that is not only protected constitutionally, but embodies a core value of the constitutional order.

The article also reflects on abortion as a dilemma not only for the woman, but also for the unborn child, the father and society. Given the steady rise in abortions in Spain, it advocates legislation that is designed to protect the human being from the onset of life and the mother, as opposed to decriminalizing and favoring abortion. For that reason, it is urgent to promote legislation that offers the pregnant woman alternatives to abortion and public powers that guarantee protection for a woman who decides not to abort, by placing the necessary means at her disposal. Legislation of that sort would do justice to the unborn child and to the mother. Only then would abortion cease to be a completely isolated decision by the woman and become an informed, educated and free choice. Failure to promote genuine alternatives to abortion is equivalent to steering the pregnant woman and her partner towards the tragedy of abortion.

The article is based on a descriptive and interdisciplinary study of the key scientific, legal and ethical issues that are involved in this topic.