Spanish Society After The Democratic Transition - Contraception and Abortion

Contraception and Abortion

During the Franco years, the ban on the sale of contraceptives was complete, at least in theory, even though the introduction of the combined oral contraceptive pill had brought artificial contraception to at least half a million Spanish women by 1975. The ban on the sale of contraceptives was lifted in 1978, but no steps were taken to ensure that they were used safely or effectively. Schools offered no sex education courses, and family planning centers existed only where local authorities were willing to pay for them. The consequence of a loosening of sexual restraints, combined with a high level of ignorance about the technology that could be substituted in their place, was a rise in the number of unwanted pregnancies, which led to the second policy problem: abortion.

Illegal abortions were fairly commonplace in Spain even under the dictatorship. A 1974 government report estimated that there were about 300,000 such abortions each year. Subsequently, the number rose to about 350,000 annually, which gave Spain one of the highest ratios of abortions to live births among advanced industrial countries. Abortion continued to be illegal in Spain until 1985, three years after the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (Partido Socialista Obrero Espanol or PSOE) came to power on an electoral platform that promised a change. Even so, the law legalized abortions only in certain cases. In the Organic Law 9/1985, adopted on July 5, 1985, induced abortion was legalized in three cases: serious risk to physical or mental health of the pregnant woman, rape and malformations or defects, physical or mental, in the fetus. Eventually, abortion laws were further liberalized in 2010, to allow abortion on demand during the first trimester.(see Abortion in Spain).