Update on the Abortion Debate in Spain

It has been announced yesterday evening that the Abortion Sub-commission which will analyse the reform of the current legislation on abortion in Spain, will start receiving the 30 experts as from November, 10. Those 30 experts were proposed by the political parties PSOE (socialists), PP (conservatives-right), IU-ERC-ICV (left) and the Grupo Mixto, while CiU (Catalonian right) and PNV (Basque right) have not proposed experts.



This Sub-Commission was set up last October 22nd, and will work in parallel with the Group of Experts at the Ministry of Equality. The Sub-Commission has a six-month period to elaborate its recommendations to be included in a future new legislation on abortion.



Under request of the PSOE group at the Spanish Congress, the Sub-Commission will also receive experts from feminists groups, pro-choice groups and spokepersons from clinics where legal aborts take place (such as the clinics gathered at ACAI, the Spanish association of clinics for abortions).



The list of experts proposed by the PSOE which will be received by the Sub-Commission include the following:

Ms Vicky Claeys (better known as Vicky Claeys), director for the Internantional Federation of Planned Parenthood
Ms Isabel Serrano, president for the Spanish Federation of Family Planning
Mr Santiago Barambio, president for ACAI (asociation of private clinics)
Mr Guillermo Sánchez, president for the Board of the Clínica Dator (private clinic)
Ms Marisa Soleto, president for the Fundación Mujeres (feminist organisation)
Ms Yolanda Besteiro, president for the NGO Federación de Mujeres Progresistas (feminists organisation)
Ms Altamira Gonzalo, president for the NGO Asociación de Mujeres Juristas Themis (a feminist organisation dealing with legal advisory for women)
Ms Elvira Méndez, director for the Association Health and Family
Mr Domingo Álvarez, gynaecologist and founder of the Planning Center La Cagiga at Santander
Mr Francisco Balanguer, professor of Constitutional Right at the University of Granada
Mr Tomás Salvador Vives, former vice-president for the Constitutional Court
Ms Margarita Delgado, a CSIC researcher (a Spanish state think-tank)

Meanwhile, the Popular Party spokesperson Ms Sandra Moneo said that her group will propose 12 individuals, which include the following:

Mr Pedro González-Trevijano, dean for the University Rey Juan Carlos
Ms Carmen Iglesias, member for the Real Academy of History
Mr Benigno Blanco, president for the Spanish Family Forum
Mr Eduardo Hetfelder, president for the Institute of Family Policy

From the side of the group formed by ERC-IU-ICV, the experts proposed include Ms Justa Montero (from the State Coordinating Committee of Feminists Organisations of Spain State), Ms Elisa Sesma (a gynaecologist), Ms Mercedes García (a professor of Penal Right at the Autonomous University of Barcelona), and Ms Silvia Aldavert (coordinator for the Association of Family Planning for Catalonia and Balears).



The Grupo Mixto has proposed the following individuals: Mr José Luis Doval, gynaecologist from the Hospital Nuestra Señora del Cristal Piñor from Ourrense (Galicia, Spain), and the expert on sexual education Ms Mercedes Oliveira.