Minister resigns over Spain’s failed abortion reform

Spain’s justice minister Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon resigned on Tuesday over a failed bid to restrict women’s right to abortion, a move which had sparked mass protests and international condemnation. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s Popular Party, which has long sided with the Roman Catholic Church on moral and social issues, had made the change one of its main promises in the 2011 vote that brought it to power. The new law would have ended a woman’s right to freely opt for an abortion up to 14 weeks of pregnancy, standard in much of Europe. Rajoy said his government would push on with a family planning reform, but it would focus on only two areas: requiring girls aged under 18 to get their parents’ consent to have an abortion and other “family support” measures.

Many of us voted for Rajoy because he promised to defend life and revoke the law allowing an open bar of abortions and how he has betrayed us.

President of anti-abortion group Right to Life, Ignacio Arsuanga

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