The final green light for harassing abortionists in front of clinics for crime

The Senate this Wednesday finally approved a reform that brings the Criminal Code to the punishment of specific offenders who harass and harass women at the doors of abortion clinics. The plenary session gave the green light to the PSOE bill, which aims to end the impunity by which ultra-Catholic groups operate in these centers for years, despite resistance from PP and Vox who have tried unsuccessfully to overthrow it. Initiative and vote against it.

The right-wing wing in its opposition makes the same argument as the groups leading the anti-abortion attack in Spain and calling for a rally in front of the Senate against what they call the “criminalization of life-lovers.” The far-right party has already announced in Congress that it will appeal the rule in the Constitutional Court, while the PP has focused its intervention on criticizing how “inappropriate” and “ineffective” the reform is from a legal point of view. In Congress, their spokesmen called for “freedom” and “exercise of rights” for those around the clinics to persuade women who had already freely decided not to have an abortion.

They do this by using a battery of actions that range from a few meters from the center to group prayer, an example commonly set by right-wingers, displaying anti-abortion banners, reprimanding women, giving birth to toys, or approaching them. Brochures loaded with false information and biased. According to a 2017-2018 survey conducted by the Association for Voluntary Termination of Pregnancy Clinics (ACAI), 89% of the 300 women from different parts of the country who experienced this charge felt harassed.

The reform envisages imprisonment for three months to one year or working for the benefit of those who “restrict or restrict the freedom of a woman who intends to exercise her right to voluntary termination of pregnancy.” Also for clinic health and administrative staff, a change from the original text to which the groups later agreed. In addition, they agreed that it is not necessary for the victim to file a complaint to try the crime.

The Chamber considered some of the changes which were still alive, but they rejected them. Among them, the so-called Establishment of “safety zones”, at the suggestion of the PNV, to prevent the evocation of concentrations around clinics within a 150-meter perimeter. This is a tool already used in countries like France, UK or Germany. The ERC and Bildu, for their part, demanded that the term “pregnant people” be included in the text with women, in order to include “trans people including gestational age” and a new clause guaranteeing anonymity and confidentiality. During the appellants process.

The strategy that ultra-Catholics typically use to defend their activities is based on reducing the intensity of operations in clinics and campaigning to “help” women to “save lives,” which is similar. They call out that some of the women they are approaching have turned around and not entered the center.

Especially in some cities and clinics like Dator, Madrid, the activity is particularly intense. On many Saturdays, at the gates of the center, an ambulance set up by Right to Live, an anti-abortion platform founded by HazteOir, does ultrasounds to make sure women who have already made a decision “know that their child is alive. That your heart beats ”and did not release him.

The clinic, the women who attend it, and its workers are now also fighting on a new front: opening a branch across the street to greet and support anti-election groups. On the façade, which does not go unnoticed, the baby’s face appears with the phrases “Will you miss my smile?” Or “Abortion is not the only option.”