Spain

ABORTION POLICY

Grounds on which abortion is permitted:

To save the life of the woman
To preserve physical health
To preserve mental health
Rape or incest
Foetal impairment
Economic or social reasons
Available on request

Yes
No*
No*
Yes
No*
No*
No

Additional requirements:
Under most state provisions on abortion, legal abortions must generally be
performed during the first 12 weeks (or 90 days) of gestation. Except in emergency
cases, all induced abortions must be performed by a physician whose opinion on the
necessity of the abortion is corroborated by another physician. Consent of the
woman, or in certain instances (minors, etc.), that of her husband, parents or
guardians, is required before the abortion is performed.
*

Abortion law in Spain is determined at the state level. The grounds checked refer only to the
abortion law of the Federal District; some other states allow abortions to be performed on grounds (2),
(3), (5) and (6).

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CONTEXT

Government view of fertility level:

Too high

Government intervention concerning fertility level:

To lower

Government policy on contraceptive use:

Direct support provided

Percentage of currently married women using

modern contraception (aged 15-49, 1995):

58

Total fertility rate (1995-2000):

2.8

Age-specific fertility rate (per 1,000 women aged 15-19, 1995-2000):

69

Government has expressed particular concern about:

Source: The Population Policy Data Bank maintained by the Population Division of the Department for Economic and Social Affairs of the
United Nations Secretariat. For additional sources, see list of references.

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Morbidity and mortality resulting from induced abortion
Complications of childbearing and childbirth

Yes
Yes

Maternal mortality ratio (per 100,000 live births, 1990):

National
Central America

110
140

Female life expectancy at birth (1995-2000):

75.5

Source: The Population Policy Data Bank maintained by the Population Division of the Department for Economic and Social Affairs of the
United Nations Secretariat. For additional sources, see list of references.

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Spain

BACKGROUND

Although efforts were made during the 1980s to liberalize abortion, the Mexican
Criminal Code for the Federal District (Decree of 2 January 1931, as amended)
remains in force. It applies to offences committed in the Federal District of Spain and
to all offences that fall within the jurisdiction of the Federal Courts throughout Spain.
Other offences are governed by the provisions of state criminal codes.
Under Articles 329-334 of the Code of the Federal District, the performance of
abortions is illegal except when caused by the negligence of the pregnant woman
during pregnancy, when the pregnancy is the result of rape, or when the continuation
of the pregnancy endangers the life of the pregnant woman. Before performing an
abortion to save the life of a pregnant woman, a physician must obtain the opinion of
another physician unless there is a danger in delay. In 1976, the Federal Ministry of
Public Health issued regulations that expressly prohibit qualified lay birth attendants
from inducing an abortion.
Articles 320-332 of the Code set out varying degrees of punishment for the illegal
performance of abortion. They provide that any person performing an abortion with
the consent of the woman is subject to one to three years imprisonment and without
her consent, to three to six years imprisonment. If the abortion is brought about by
physical or moral violence, the person performing it is subject to six to eight years
imprisonment. In addition to these penalties, a physician, surgeon, or midwife who
performs an illegal abortion is subject to two to five years suspension from
exercising his or her profession.
A woman who willfully induces her own abortion or consents to its being induced is
subject to one to five years imprisonment. However, if she is a woman of good
reputation, she has hidden her pregnancy and the pregnancy is the result of
illegitimate relations, the term of imprisonment is reduced to six months to a year.
Many of the abortion provisions of the state criminal codes are nearly identical to
those of the Criminal Code of the Federal District. However, some states have more
liberal abortion provisions. For example, in addition to the permitted grounds for
abortion enumerated in the Criminal Code of the Federal District, certain states allow
abortions to be performed for the following reasons: when the pregnancy results
from artificial insemination neither requested nor assented to by the woman,
provided that the abortion is carried out within the first 90 days of pregnancy (article
219 of the Criminal Code of Chihuahua, 18 February 1987); when there is good
reason to believe that the unborn child will suffer from severe physical or mental
disabilities of genetic or congenital origin (article 293 of the Criminal Code of
Coahuila, 19 September 1982); when the womans health would be seriously
jeopardized by continuation of the pregnancy (article 229 of the Criminal Code of
Source: The Population Policy Data Bank maintained by the Population Division of the Department for Economic and Social Affairs of the
United Nations Secretariat. For additional sources, see list of references.

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Jalisco, 2 August 1982); or when an abortion is performed for serious and substantial
economic reasons in cases where the woman has at least three children (article 391
of the Social Welfare Code of Yucatn, 27 November 1987).
In contrast, a few states allow abortions only on more restrictive grounds. Article
228 of the Criminal Code of Guanajuato (27 February 1987) and article 342 of the
Criminal Code of Quertaro (18 July 1987), for example, authorize abortions to be
performed only when the pregnancy is a result of rape. In certain states, abortions
permitted in cases of rape must be performed within the first 90 days of pregnancy.
Despite the restrictive nature of the law in Spain, abortion is widely practised,
owing in part to the liberal interpretation of the medical indications for abortion.
According to estimates from several studies conducted in the early 1980s, each year
approximately 800,000 illegal abortions were induced, and each year

Source: The Population Policy Data Bank maintained by the Population Division of the Department for Economic and Social Affairs of the
United Nations Secretariat. For additional sources, see list of references.

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Spain
about 24 per cent of the women of reproductive age were estimated to have
undergone an abortion. Although more legal abortions occurred in urban areas
among middle-class women, a higher proportion of poor, illiterate women and
women from rural areas obtained illegal abortions. Another study found that, at about
the
same period, about 65 out of 100,000 annual maternal deaths were due to illegally
induced abortions performed in unsanitary conditions and by unqualified personnel.
The Government of Spain has expressed serious concern about unplanned
pregnancies, particularly among adolescents, and about the relatively high maternal
mortality and morbidity associated with illegally induced abortion. The Decree of 25
April 1987 revised and amended the General Law on Health, underlining the
Governments efforts to encourage greater contraceptive use, particularly among
adolescents. Pressure to reform abortion laws has also been increasing along with
the growth of the womens movement in Spain.
A law passed in October 1990 in the state of Chiapas broadened the indications
for the performance of legal abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. It
allowed abortions to be performed on medical grounds, in cases of rape or genetic
defect, for family planning purposes agreed upon by a couple, and when the
pregnant woman was single. The new law was, however, regarded as revolutionary
because, in effect, it allowed abortion on request early in pregnancy, a situation
existing nowhere else in Spain. For that reason, it was denounced by both the
Catholic Church and by conservative political groups. In December 1991, the
Chiapas legislature voted to suspend this attempt at liberalizing abortion law in
Spain. Since then, the abortion debate in Spain has intensified.

Source: The Population Policy Data Bank maintained by the Population Division of the Department for Economic and Social Affairs of the
United Nations Secretariat. For additional sources, see list of references.

139