In a shocking reversal of a serious and often reiterated campaign promise, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy confirmed Tuesday that his Popular Party government will remove a bill that aimed to reverse the previous Zapatero government’s notorious law allowing abortion-on-demand.
Enacted in 2010, the Zapatero law allowed abortion without restrictions up to 14 weeks and gave 16- and 17-year-olds the right to have abortions without parental consent.
Rajoy’s Minister of Justice, Alberto Ruiz Gallardon, who wrote the now-pulled bill to restrict abortion and included it in the party’s platform, resigned upon hearing of Rajoy’s reversal.
“I believe it is my duty to resign with humility, recognizing that I have not been able to turn the reversal law into law,” Gallardon said, according to InfoCatolica.
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Praised by some and criticized by others for writing a law that was not strongly pro-life enough, Gallardon’s resignation was generally taken by pro-lifers in Spain as a sign of his integrity. They have pledged, however, that Prime Minister Rajoy and his Popular Party will pay at the polls come next election for what they deem a betrayal of his base.
According to Gador Joya, spokesperson for Spain’s pro-life “Derecho A Vivir” (Right to Life) organization, said, according to InfoCatolica, “It is a slap in the face of hundreds of thousands of Spaniards who only 48 hours ago took to the streets asking him to approve the reform. The president of the Government demonstrates that he is not capable of pushing through a social change. He is not trustworthy because he sees himself incapable of approving laws with permanence.”
In what pro-life leaders consider a weak move designed to appease social conservatives, Rajoy has proposed altering the norms of implementing the Zapatero law so that those younger than 16 or 17 will need parental consent in order to have an abortion. His new “Plan to Protect the Family” will be introduced by the end of this year.
Polonia Castellanos, spokeswoman for the Spanish Association of Christian Lawyers, says, “Rajoy has just committed one of the worst electoral frauds by promoting for three years fundamental reform in defense of the rights of the unborn and then thrown away all his promises with a few words.”