Spain: 'Because it’s my choice', statement on abortion rights to Spain’s House of Commons

Tens of thousands marched on February 1 in Madrid in opposition to restrictions on the right to choose.

February 2, 2014 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal – The following declaration of the "Freedom Train" in support of women's right to choose abortion and against the regressive changes to abortion laws by the national government of Spain was released prior to a big march from Atocha to the parliament on February 1, 2014 (picture above).

A draft bill to restrict abortion to cases of rape or severe danger to the mother's health is being considered. Four years ago, Spain came in line with most of the rest of Europe when the then Socialist Party government legalised abortion in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy.

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English translation by Pilar Cuder-Domínguez

Nosotrasdecidimos.org – Because it’s my choice from an adult moral standpoint, the basis of a person’s dignity, I will not accept any imposition or prohibition concerning my sexual and reproductive rights that hampers my full human rights. As an independent human being I refuse to be subjected to arbitrary meddling and degrading practices, as well as to be the state’s ward concerning my decision whether to become mother.

Because I am free, I appeal to freedom of conscience to take my decisions according to my moral convictions. Only hypocrites can invoke freedom at the same time they are restricting it; only evil minds can disregard the suffering they are causing by imposing their religious principles on everyone. As a free human being I refuse to be forced to be a mother and to be legally considered as a minor regarding my sexual and reproductive life.

Because I live in a democracy and I believe in democracy, I subscribe to the difference between “rights” and “sins” and between “law” and “religion.” No political party, even one that has obtained a landslide victory in an election, has the right to transform rights into crimes or to compel us to follow religious principles with the threat of a criminal conviction. As a citizen I demand that the government refrain from turning democratic power (which is the safeguard of plurality) into despotism.

Because it’s my choice, I am free, and I live in a democracy, I demand from the government, any government, that it make laws that promote moral autonomy, preserve freedom of conscience, and guarantee plurality and diversity.

Because it’s my choice, I am free, and I live in a democracy, I demand the continuity of the current Law of Sexual and Reproductive Health and pregnancy termination to promote the moral autonomy, to preserve the freedom of conscience, and to guarantee the plurality and diversity of all women.