Thousands of protesters in Madrid march against new abortion law
- Spain’s leftist government is preparing a law to guarantee access to the procedure at public hospitals
- Spain decriminalised abortion in 1985, but many doctors in the predominantly Catholic refuse to carry out the procedure
Thousands of people marched though Madrid on Sunday to protest against abortion, as Spain’s leftist government prepares a law to guarantee access to the procedure at public hospitals.
Carrying signs that read “Abortion is not right” and chanting “More respect for life”, demonstrators walked through the centre of the Spanish capital to Cibeles square in central Madrid where a manifesto was read aloud.
“There are other alternatives. After an abortion there is always trauma but that is not talked about,” said Yolanda Torosio, a 44-year-old secretary who attended the protest with her daughter.
The protest was organised by the “Yes to Life” platform which estimated that some 20,000 people took part. The central government’s representative in Madrid put the number of marchers at about 9,000.
The crowd included parents with pushchairs, retired couples and groups of youths, some carrying Spanish flags.
While Spain decriminalised abortion in 1985, women in the predominantly Catholic country still face obstacles when choosing to terminate a pregnancy since many doctors refuse to care out the procedure.