Spanish lawmakers vote to legalize abortion, instate parental notification

Spain’s lower house voted Thursday to lift legal restrictions on abortion up to 14 weeks. The measure is expected to pass the Senate.
From the Associated Press:

Under the current law, which dates back to 1985, Spanish women could in theory go to jail for getting an abortion outside certain strict limits — up to week 12 in case of rape and week 22 if the fetus is malformed.

Exceptions currently exist in cases of rape, fetal abnormalities, or threats to the woman’s physical or mental health. The mental health exception is widely used, and about 100,000 abortions are performed annually in Spain with very little legal prosecution. However, doctors have been brought to court, clinics have been closed, and women have been investigated after seeking abortions.
Access to abortion up to 14 weeks would no longer be limited for most women in Spain under the new law, and the threat of imprisonment would be removed. Again from the AP:

The new bill, besides allowing unrestricted abortion up to 14 weeks, would permit it up to 22 weeks if two doctors certify there is a serious threat to the health of the mother, or fetal malformation.
Beyond 22 weeks, it would be allowed only doctors certify fetal malformation deemed incompatible with life or the fetus were diagnosed with an extremely serious or incurable disease.

The news isn’t all good, though. The new law would require parental notification (though not parental consent) for 16- and 17-year-old women. Parental consent and notification laws create barriers to abortion for young women who cannot safely inform their parents for a number of reasons such as strong anti-choice beliefs and incest. While a bypass to notification exists in the legislation, these sorts of processes are difficult to navigate, especially for a young person trying to access the procedure without her family’s knowledge, and can delay the abortion, which can make the procedure more expensive and increase the chances of complications.
And of course Catholic church officials had to weigh in:

The Spanish Bishops’ Conference warned last month that legislators who voted in favor of the bill would be sinning and no longer eligible to receive Communion.

Somebody please make them stop.