The European Green Party welcomes the call by Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Díaz (Sumar) for Spain to follow the example of France, and enshrine access to safe abortion in the Spanish Constitution.
Spain Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Labour and Social Economy Yolanda Díaz said: ”Deciding over our own bodies is a right that must be enshrined in the Spanish Constitution. This week, French women showed us the way: we must protect the right to abortion. And today in Spain we open the social debate to protect women's rights at the highest place possible level.”
Mélanie Vogel, co-chair of the European Green Party, and the driving force behind the French decision, said: "I’m very proud and happy to see that progressive forces are following in the footsteps of what we achieved in France. This is an essential step to ensure that abortion rights are fully guaranteed everywhere.
Our victory is the result of a massive mobilisation across society of women and feminist groups. It shows that when feminists unite and mobilise, they can achieve everything. This was true in France, and this will be true in Spain as well. As European Greens, we want to go beyond. We want the right to abortion to be guaranteed everywhere. Ahead of the European elections in June we are fighting to guarantee this right in the European Union, by introducing it in the Charter of Fundamental Rights. All Green parties have adopted this position in February in our common manifesto Courage to Change."
Aina Vidal, Deputy Spokesperson of Sumar in the Spanish Congress added: "There are forces that want to take away basic rights from us women. This week, France and its brave women have shown us the way. Being a mother is an option, not an obligation. We rule our bodies. In our Parliamentary group, we believe that our time has come as well. It is time to include abortion in the Spanish Constitution.”
Background
On Monday 4 March, the French Congress voted to enshrine the right to abortion in the constitution. The decision was taken on the basis of a 2022 initiative by Mélanie Vogel, French Green senator for Les Ecologistes, and co-chair of the European Green Party.
Giving constitutional protection to the right to abortion is an important victory for the women's movement, in the same week as International Women's Day, Friday 8 March.
Three Spanish political parties are members of the European Green Party: Esquerra Verda since 2006, Verdes Equo since 2016, and Catalunya En Comú since 2021. In the last Spanish national elections in July, all three parties participated in the Sumarcoalition led by Yolanda Díaz. Since the PSOE and Sumar formed the Sanchez III government in November 2023, former Sumar spokesperson Ernest Urtasun is the Green minister in the Spanish government.
