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The Associated Press: Huge crowd protests easing Spain's abortion law
This new law needs to pass. The status quo right now in Spain is a farce. Most abortions are elective and performed under the vague "physical or mental danger" clause. These people are protesting to keep a travesty in place.
MADRID — A huge crowd rallied in Madrid Saturday against a bill to ease restrictions on abortion — a vivid and emotional show of how the issue remains sensitive two decades after abortion was legalized in this traditionally Roman Catholic country.
The crowd of at least tens of thousands of people waved banners, balloons and red-and-yellow Spanish flags as it marched down a major Madrid boulevard with the slogan "Every Life Matters."
Civic groups predicted 1 million or more people would attend, and said they chartered some 600 buses to bring people in from other cities. Spanish police systematically refuse to give turnout estimates for protests.
The protest was called to denounce a bill sponsored by the Socialist government that would allow unrestricted abortion at up to 14 weeks of pregnancy and let girls aged 16 and 17 have abortions without parental consent.
Under the country's 1985 abortion law, the procedure is allowed in cases of rape or fetal malformation, or when doctors deem a pregnant woman's physical or mental health to be in danger — a clause that has allowed for abortions to be carried out more or less freely. Most of Spain's yearly 100,000 abortions come under that clause.
This new law needs to pass. The status quo right now in Spain is a farce. Most abortions are elective and performed under the vague "physical or mental danger" clause. These people are protesting to keep a travesty in place.