Spain’s left-leaning government has unveiled plans to make access to abortion a constitutional right, following a heated controversy sparked by a new policy from Madrid’s conservative-led city hall.
The debate erupted earlier this week after Madrid’s municipal authorities, dominated by the Popular Party (PP), endorsed a far-right motion requiring medical professionals to inform women about a so-called “post-abortion syndrome.”
The proposal alleged that abortion could lead to mental health problems, substance abuse, suicidal thoughts, and even cancer — claims widely dismissed by the medical community as unfounded.
Under intense public backlash, Madrid’s PP mayor, Jose Luis Almeida, later admitted that post-abortion syndrome “is not a recognised scientific category” and clarified that disseminating such information would not be mandatory.
Responding to the uproar, Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez accused the PP of “aligning itself with the far right” and announced his government’s intention to push for a constitutional amendment guaranteeing abortion rights.
“We will move to ensure that no one can ever again question women’s freedom to decide,” Sánchez wrote on X.
Enshrining abortion rights in the constitution would, however, be a challenging process. Spain’s constitutional reform requires a three-fifths majority in parliament, meaning the government must secure support from opposition lawmakers.
Spain first decriminalised abortion in 1985 in limited cases, rape, foetal malformation, or threats to the mother’s health.
The law was later expanded in 2010 to allow abortion on demand within the first 14 weeks of pregnancy. Yet access remains uneven, with some doctors in public hospitals refusing to perform the procedure.
If successful, Spain would follow in France’s footsteps, which last year became the first country to constitutionally guarantee the right to terminate a pregnancy.
