Spain allows abortion and gender reassignment from the age of 16

The Spanish Parliament passed laws on abortion and gender self-determination, allowing minors 16 years of age or older to terminate a pregnancy without parental permission or change gender without a mandatory medical or psychological opinion.

Both laws were passed after overcoming internal divisions within the left-wing coalition government and in the face of rejection by the right-wing opposition, albeit with part of the feminist movement against it in the event sex change.

Abortion News

New abortion law ends with parental consent for minors under the age of 16 and 17, as the age of majority is 18 in Spaina requirement that was introduced in 2015 by the government of the conservative People’s Party, which is now the main opposition group.

IN Spain free abortion is possible during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy, in exceptional cases up to 22 weeks, when there is a serious risk to the life or health of the pregnant woman or a risk of serious fetal anomalies, and then only in connection with incompatible fetal anomalies with life or an extremely serious and incurable disease.

The new rule also eliminates the obligation to inform women about maternity benefits and the three-day reflection period before an abortion.

In addition to the introduction of innovations such as sick leave for incapacitated menstruation and the extension of reproductive rights to “transgender people capable of bearing children”, that is, those who changed their sex to male, but retained their female reproductive system.

Forced sterilization and contraception, forced abortion and surrogacy are classified as violence, and advertisements for intermediary agencies are banned to prevent surrogacy, which is banned in Spain.

The approval came shortly after Spain’s Constitutional Court approved the 2010 abortion law approved by the government of socialist José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, which was challenged more than twelve years ago by conservatives and will now replace the new law.

In 2021, the latest year on record, 90,189 voluntary abortions were performed in Spain, the vast majority of them in private centres.

trans law

For its part, the so-called transgender law was passed after overcoming differences between government partners, the socialist party PSOE and the left-wing organization United We Can.

The new law recognizes the desire of a person from the age of 16 as the only requirement for a sex change in the vital records, excluding mandatory hormones and psychological and medical assessments as requirements.

Minors between the ages of 16 and 14 can change their gender on the registry if they arrive with their parents or legal guardians, while those between the ages of 12 and 14 will need court permission.

The socialist part of the government defended that minors under the age of 16 should have judicial authorization, although a text promoted by his partner was eventually adopted.

men who change their sex they will not escape conviction for sexist violence, since the legal obligations that any person had before their gender reassignment will be preserved.

Some cases of men who they changed gender and they were initially placed in women’s prisons despite being convicted of sexist violence, causing controversy in countries such as the United Kingdom.

The law also regulates cases of genital modification in minors, only allowing it when medically warranted and if it is considered mature to do so, once countries like Sweden review similar rules, greatly expanding the practice amid criticism of its irreversibility on the part of people who repented as an adult.

LGBTI+ activism celebrated the passage of the law at the gates of Parliament along with its promoter, Minister Irene Montero of Unidas Podemos, while a feminist group called for her resignation, believing that gender self-determination “erases” the women of women, if one can just by entering the register.

(As reported by EFE)