FOR attempting to scare women into avoiding getting abortions, activists could face up to a year in prison.
Spain's Senate approved a new law last Wednesday that makes harassing or intimidating women seeking abortions illegal.
Anti-abortion activists who try to persuade women to keep their pregnancies may face a year in prison under the new rule, which needs changes to the penal code.
The policy, sponsored by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's Socialist Party, will take effect once published in the official state bulletin in the following days.
Anyone who uses "bothersome, offensive, frightening, or threatening activities" to "prevent from exercising her right to freely interrupt pregnancy" will face three to twelve months in prison or community service, according to the text.
In practice, the law makes protests outside abortion facilities illegal. Harassment or intimidation of healthcare workers at abortion clinics is also forbidden.
In 1985, Spain, a staunchly Catholic country, decriminalised abortion in cases of rape, if a foetus is deformed, or if the birth jeopardises the mother's health or mental well-being.
In 2010, the law was expanded to allow for abortion on demand throughout the first 14 weeks of pregnancy.
Despite this, Spanish women face obstacles, with "most" public-sector obstetrician-gynecologists refusing to do such procedures, according to the Organización Médica Colegial (OMC).
Anti-abortion activists may confront women at a private clinic, persuading them not to terminate their pregnancies.
During the discussion, anti-abortion activists from the Right to Life platform protested the "criminalization" of their rallies outside the Senate.
In a statement, spokesperson Inmaculada Fernández said, "Praying is not a crime, and we will continue to pray and offer our assistance to all those ladies who need it so that they may understand that abortion is not the only solution."
According to a 2018 poll by the ACAI, which represents abortion facilities, 89 percent of Spanish women stated they had been harassed, and 66 percent said they had been intimidated while visiting an abortion clinic.
Sánchez's government is also working on legislation that will make abortions available in all public hospitals and allow 16- and 17-year-olds to stop pregnancy without their parent's approval, as they can in the UK and France.
