An unprecedented leaked draft opinion from the Supreme Court this month showed the Justices poised to overturn Roe v. Wade in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. The case surrounds the constitutionality of a 15-week abortion ban in Mississippi. In Europe, 12 to 15-week abortion restrictions are mainstream. Now, pro-abortion lawmakers in one European country are working to push their abortion agenda for teenage girls to undergo the procedure without parental consent.
BBC reported this week that a new bill in Spain will remove a requirement for 16 and 17-year-old girls to have parental consent to obtain an abortion. In Spain, elective abortion is allowed up to 14 weeks of pregnancy.
In addition, the bill would include "paid menstrual leave," which would allow women experiencing severe menstrual pain to have three days of sick leave for painful menstrual periods and "potentially extending it to five days for particularly intense or incapacitating pain." The country's state social security system, not employers, would pay for the sick leave.
Spain's Equality Minister Irene Montero reportedly said the government had to "discard taboos, stigmas and guilt regarding women's bodies." The bill will impose tighter restrictions on surrogacy, which is already illegal in Spain, by prohibiting the advertisement of surrogacy services.
"It [the government] says surrogacy is a form of violence against women and categorises any type of forced pregnancy, abortion, sterilisation or contraception in the same way," BBC reported.
BBC added that "Spain's left-wing coalition government came to power almost four years ago and has made women's rights one of its key areas," noting that other proposals in the reproductive health bill "aim to boost the development of hormonal contraception for men, stressing that contraception is not the responsibility of women alone."
In the event of a Roe overturn in the United States, abortion laws would go back to the states. Several states have "trigger laws" on the books that would restrict abortion automatically. Some states, like Oklahoma, South Dakota, Idaho, Texas, Arizona, Nebraska and Florida, are creating and passing legislation protecting the unborn. Pro-abortion lawmakers in states like Michigan, Maryland, Colorado and California are working to expand abortion.
