El Aborto, Derecho de la Mujer / Abortion, a Woman's Right

Living in Madrid for a year has exposed me to a society that I have found to have two surprisingly paradoxical sides. Even walking around the capital alone, different neighbourhoods are made up of visibly different people, with different beliefs, political views, and lifestyles. The current conservative leadership of Mariano Rajoy’s recent anti-abortion law, which now limits a woman’s right to abortion only to cases of rape or severe health danger, clashes loudly with the image of Spanish society that always stood out to me – one of openness, social inclusion, relative friendliness toward immigrant minorities and favourable to LGBT rights compared to many of its European counterparts. The anti-abortion act has shocked me deeply, as a woman and citizen of a European Union that prides itself of acting as an international beacon of promoting individual rights. This leads me to question why an apparently liberal European country, where 88% of the population believes homosexuality should be accepted in society (Pew Research Group), the highest consensus worldwide, has suddenly made such a drastic U-turn in another issue of social liberty.

Having studied Spain’s modern history and society in depth, I find that this paradox of conservatism facing liberalism that has resurfaced must be understood in the context of the country’s unique history. The prominence of a Catholic church that has been vociferous for centuries should be kept into account, and even before Franco’s dictatorship was instated following a bloody civil conflict, Spain was notoriously divided – most prominently in the 8 years of the Second republic – between the republican more liberal forces and the conservative, nationalist side. The social repression under Francoism, and lack of redemptive trials in the transition to democracy has meant that society remains, on a certain level, deeply divided when it comes to politics and social issues. Thus the debate among the new and the old, the young and the elderly, the secular and the religious, liberalism and traditionalism, appears as alive and present in modern-day Spain as it was in 1936 prior to the outbreak of its civil war, fought precisely over this dialectic.

Is this law simply a superficial political tactic of Rajoy's government? Or does it actually reflect the opinions of a conservative majority in Spanish society (who indeed voted for the PP)? Walking through the streets of a city where freedom of expression and activism are at every corner makes me sceptical of this possibility.