HOW HAS ABORTION CHANGED?

Abortion is a way to stop pregnancy. Women who have an abortion can have several reasons to act like that: physical or psychological problems for the mother, the malformation of the foetus or even when the woman has been raped.

In the Basque Country the situation of abortion has changed over the years. Religion has always had a big impact on this topic, because the right of human life above anything else is defended. In the seventies the situation was very complicated for those women who wanted to have an abortion in the Basque Country; Spain and France as well. Circumstances like these made women fight for their rights. Ten years after Franco´s dictatorship, in 1985, the first abortion law was accepted.

Catholic religion has lost a lot of power, though still there is a big movement against abortion. These groups in society defend that an abortion is a murder. However, there are some feminist movements in the Basque Country such us Bilgune Feminista or the women assembly from different countries which support abortion and are making people think about it.

Abortion has changed over the last twenty four years. The law which was approved in 1985 has been working all these years without considering further changes until now, when a new proposal has been put forward. It consists of having the possibility to have an abortion under any circumstances in the first 22 weeks of pregnancy. That proposal also allows young women from 16 up to have an abortion without their parents’ permission.