In December 2013, Spain’s cabinet passed a draft bill that would make the country’s abortion statutes some of the most restrictive in Europe. President Mariano Rajoy, together with Minister of Justice Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, splintered their party, the Partido Popular (PP), with their push to change the regulations in force since 2010, which allowed abortion upon request for the first 14 weeks of gestation. In February, a move to abandon the proposed changes to abortion access was narrowly defeated in Congress, where the legislation will now be subject to a general vote, according to the Guardian (UK).

Throughout 2013, the Spanish bishops’ conference (CEE) waged an all-out campaign urging for greater restrictions. The Spanish newspaper El País reported that religious and secular groups mobilized to protest the proposed law, which only allows abortion if there is a documented risk to the life or health of the woman, or in the case of rape. The documentation must come from two different doctors at two different health centers, and there would be a mandatory seven-day “reflection period.” “This law will take Spanish women back to dictatorship times when we needed the consent of our fathers or husbands to do anything,” said lawyer Maria Alvarez at a protest against the legislation.

The Asociación de Clínicas Acreditadas para la Interrupción del Embarazo, the umbrella organization for most abortion clinics in Spain, calculated that more than 90 percent of abortions would not be allowed. Esteban Beltrán, a director at Amnesty International Spain, said that the legislation “would disproportionately affect young and poor women as they don’t have the necessary means to travel abroad” to access abortion.

Polls conducted by El País found that 78 percent of Spaniards did not think the new abortion bill was necessary, and 86 percent of respondents believed that women had a right to decide whether or not to terminate a pregnancy. Andalusia and Catalonia, the two most populous regions, are appealing to the Justice Ministry for a complete repeal of the bill.