Spanish abortion laws debated in parliament

Izquierda Unida, the Spanish communist party, is due to present a motion in parliament today calling for reform in Spanish abortion laws. This move comes at a time when the debate over Spanish abortion laws has been reopened due to the controversy over the investigations into illegal abortions being carried out in a number of clinics in Madrid in Barcelona. Gaspar Llamazares, leader of Izquierda Unida, has accused the government of not fulfilling its electoral promises over this issue.

The present law Spain only legally allow abortion in 3 cases – when the woman has been raped and has reported it to the police then an abortion is allowed during the first 12 weeks of the pregnancy, if serious physical abnormalities have been detected in the foetus then an abortion can be carried out up to 22 weeks into the pregnancy or the pregnant woman faces serious risks to her health or possible negative psychological problems due to the pregnancy (no time limit is in place under these circumstances).

Yesterday José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the Spanish president admitted that this issue would have to be addressed in time, but he did not specify whether or not decriminalisation of abortion would be included in their election manifesto. It is understood that the women members of Zapatero's Gabinet are pushing for reform.

Maribel Montaño the PSOE secretary in charge of Equality said in an radio interview broadcast on Cadena Ser that the present laws governing abortion in Spain were made 25 years ago and that now was the time to modify the law and adapt it to the new social reality of today’s Spain. She confirmed that any supposed changes to the law would be included in PSOE’s next electoral programme. She said the double objective of this would be to defend the rights of women to control their maternity and give more legal backing and clarification on this issue.

Maternity care in Spain to be improved

Government announces measures to improve birth and maternity care in Spanish hospitals.

Although Spain has one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world, giving birth in some Spanish hospitals can involve certain medical procedures which make it a cold and clinical experience. Over-frequent caesareans, women forced into uncomfortable postures with legs tied to stirrups or unnecessary episiotomies can make giving birth in Spain an unpleasant experience with little or no intimacy. This is why the Inter-Regional Council (the organization that coordinates health services belonging to different autonomous regions and the Health Ministry) has introduced a ‘Strategy for a Normal Birth’ in which each region in Spain is committed to allowing the woman giving birth to have a say in her care, as long as her safety or the safety of the baby is not put at risk. This strategy will also be applied to care for pregnant women. However, on announcing the measures yesterday, the Spanish Health Minister, Bernat Soria stressed that this didn’t mean home births.

Cervical Cancer Vaccine
The Inter-Regional Council also approved the introduction of the new vaccine against cancer of the cervix. Despite receiving protests from several regional health authorities, the vaccine against the human papiloma virus (which causes cancer of the cervix) will be financed by each autonomous region at a cost of around 300 euros per vaccine. In Spain about 2000 cases of cancer of the cervix are diagnosed per year and there are 600 deaths from this disease. A commission is to be set up to establish at what age the vaccine should be given.

Free dental care for children
A plan for dental health to be partly financed by the government is to be introduced at a cost of 12 million euros in 2008. The plan consists of giving free dental health care (check ups, dental hygiene procedures, fillings and extractions) to all children between the ages of 7 and 15.

Finally, Health Minister also announced a digitalization of health records in Spain so that all patients would have access to their health records wherever they were and in this way they could receive better medical treatment.

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Phone helpline for victims of domestic violence

016 - New Confidential Telephone Helpline in Spain

This weekend the Spanish government presented a new confidential 24 hour telephone helpline for victims of domestic violence. The helpline has actually been up and running since the 3rd September and has already received 445 calls. The number to call is 016 and it won’t appear on the telephone’s last dialled number or on the bill.

Soledad Murillo, the General Secretary of the government’s Equality Policy team and Encarnación Orozco who represents the government in its campaign against violence against women both said that victims of gender violence needed a 24 hour helpline operating 365 days a year. Murillo pointed out that battered women often don’t want to go through the lengthy process of filing a formal complaint and that the new 016 helpline was aimed a assisting these women by assessing their situation and informing them of their rights.

Murillo also emphasised that it would always be the decision of the victim whether to file an official compliant or not. She also said that the helpline was not only aimed at the victims of gender violence but also at friends, neighbours or relatives so that they could be informed about how best to help such people.

The government advertisement for the new 016 helpline shows a black screen with a cardiogram on it showing a heartbeat which suddenly stops and then you can hear a dialling tone followed by a voice saying ‘For this never to happen again call 016 at the first sign of abuse. The telephone number 016 can change lives.

Equality of sexes in Spain

Spanish Congress passes new equality laws

The Spanish parliament passed the Law on Equality between men and women yesterday. This new law gives fathers the right to 15 days paternity leave and equality between men and women on electoral lists which according to Zapatero, the Spanish president will radically transform society for ever.

The president took it upon himself to present the law on equality in the Spanish Congress today with the support of 192 members of parliament but with the notable abstention of the 119 PP members of parliament. When the law was passed there was a standing ovation by members of parliament and representatives of women’s groups that had been following the debate in the Congress.

The Law on Equality also forces companies with more than 250 employees to negotiate plans on equality within the workplace and for larger companies to incorporate 40% of women in their Board of Directors within 8 years.

It also gives parents the rights to reduce their working day from an eighth to half in order to look after children under eight years old. In the case of premature births, maternity leave starts when the baby leaves the hospital. Paternity leave will be extended from 15 days to one month within a timescale of 6 years.

One of the most controversial changes that the new law will bring about is to electoral lists. In districts of 5000 or more inhabitants political parties must have at least 40% of women for every 5 posts. From 2011 this measure will be applied to districts of 3000 or more inhabitants.

Susana Camarero, a member of PP, accused Zapatero of being an armchair feminist who does not listen to women (even though he is the only president in Spanish history to have an equal number of men and women ministers in his government). She said that this was a law for elites and that it did not address the needs of real people. She also said it was not very ambitious and that it would not be very effective.

Zapatero highlighted that the most important objective was to do justice to women. He dedicated the 15th March 2007 to Clara Campoamor, the member of parliament who defended women’s rights 75 years ago. According to Jesús Caldera, the Minister for Work and Social affairs this new law could come into effect next Monday.

Spanish woman wins the right to die

Euthanasia in Spain

Inmaculada Echevarría, a 51 year old woman who suffered from the degenerative disease, muscular distrophy, finally won her battle to be allowed to die yesteray. She died last night at 9pm in the San Juan de Dios Hospital in Andalucia. According to the Andalucian Health Service, the medical team that attended her made sure that she was in no pain when she died.

Inmaculada Echevarría had been transferred the same day from the San Rafael hospital in Granada, run by a religious order to the San Juan de Dios hospital run by the Andalucian Health Service in order to fulfil her final wish, to die with dignity.
Although the religious order that ran the hospital where she had been for the last 10 years accepted Inmaculada Echevarría’s desire to die as reasonable her transfer to another hospital was requested due to conflicting opinions in some religious sectors.

Echevarría had received the authorization to be allowed to die from the Andalucian Ethics Commitee. The Andalucian Government assured that following the ruling supporting the patient’s wishes, that Echevarria had received medical from the same medical team that had treated her in San Rafael Hospital until her final moments of life. In accordance with the Ethic Committee’s ruling Echevarria had been sedated in order to avoid any suffering on the patient’s part.

Before she was disconnected from her artificial respiratory machine doctors and psychologists informed the patient of the process and confirmed once again the patient’s desire to die.

During her last days alive Echevarria was visited by her biological son, who she had given up for adoption when he was just a few months old following the death of her partner in a traffic accident. She also said goodbye to her close friends. However, she refused to speak to the media who had been following her case since it had become public.

Inmaculada had been suffering a degenerative disease since she was a child. She first noted the effects when she was just 11 years old. She had out lived both her parents and had survived her sister who had died from a broken neck in an accident. In an interview with the Spanish newspaper, El Pais, Inmaculada said that she had wanted to die for 27 years, since she had given up her son for adoption.
Inmaculada will be cremated on Friday. Her closest friend will attend the crematorium and has asked for respect and privacy.

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Women executives in Spain

Women occupy 1 in 5 high level posts in Spanish companies

A study by Axesor Grupo Infotel has found that there are 925,944 women in high level jobs in Spanish companies. This figure means that women occupy only 1 in 5 high level posts.

According to information in the Boletín Oficial del Registro Mercantil (BORME) there are more than 4.6 million high level posts in Spanish companies out of which 19% are carried out by women.

Out of the 925,000 women who carry out high level jobs in Spain around 622,401 women occupy the post of company administrator, 167,353 are directors or managers, 84,780 are company advisors and 6,718 are vice-presidents. These figures make up around 20 – 19% of the actual number of such posts that exist in Spain.

However this figure drops to just 14% when looking at the number of women who occupy the post of president of the company (32, 118).

Santiago Martín, the general director of Axesor, concludes that despite advances in recent years a lot still needs to be done in order to bridge the gap between men and women’s employment opportunities.

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Sexist advertising in Spain

Domenico Dolce y Stefano Gabbana (Dolce & Gabbana) say they don’t understand accusations from Spain that their latest advertising campaign is sexist and encourages violence against women.

According to several Spanish organisations, including a department of the Spanish Women's Institute (Observatorio de la Imagen del Instituto español de la Mujer) the advert encourages violence against women. Because of the controversy the advert has created here and the protest that has been registered in different areas of Spanish politics and society, the designers have decided to withdraw the advert, but only from Spain.

On announcing their decision, the designers Dolce and Gabbana accused Spain of being "in the dark ages". They defended the advert by saying that the artistic photo had nothing to do with real life. The advertisement in question shows a woman being held down by her wrists by a man with 4 other men watching. Various other Spanish organisations have complained about the advert and requested its withdrawal. Spain has one of the most worrying records of domestic violence in Europe, and despite the attempts of this government and previous PP governments to stem the growing tide of domestic abuse, the number of crimes committed by men against women continues to rise.

Dolce and Gabbana said that the advert was a work of art and that if the Spaniards were right in their interpretation of the photo, then both the Louvre and the works of Caravaggio would also have to be destroyed.

At present the advert is on display in an exhibition which opened yesterday in Milan showing other photos from their new advertising campaign. The exhibition is called Secret Ceremony and shows photos of nude bodies and erotic scenes taken by the photographer Steven Klein. According to the designers the images explore the thin line between morality and immorality. The question remains whether or not the advert withdrawn by the designers today has crossed that line.

Prostitution in Spain

Congress to recommend that prostitution should not be regularized in Spain

The Commission on the rights of women in Spain will recommend that prostitution should not be regularized following a careful and detailed study of this controversial and delicate subject. According to Cadena Ser It will also recommend that newspapers omit advertisements in the contacts pages and that extra resources be put into combating mafias in Spain.

According to the Commission the regularization of prostitution would have serious legal implications and go against articles 9 and 14 of the Spanish Constitution. In addition it would also infringe labour rights.

These are the findings in the final report from the Commission on the rights of women in Spain. It also pointed out that countries which had regularized prostitution had experienced more mafia activity and human trafficking.

The report says that more resources are required for the protection of women who have been the victim of human trafficking. It also said that there should be a campaign directed at men in order to reduce demand for prostitutes. Another finding was that sex adverts in magazines and newspapers should be prohibited.

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Child maintenance in Spain

Child maintenance in Spain are amongst the lowest in the European Union.

According to a study carried out by the Instituto de Política Familiar (IPF) Spanish families receive the lowest financial help from the state out of all the countries in the European Union. Just 0.52% of GDP in Spain is used for giving financial help to families, a figure far below the average for the rest of the European Union. This difference is partly explained by the way benefits are calculated in Spain using means testing which results in only the families with the lowest incomes receiving state help whereas in the rest of the European Union help is given universally regardless of family income.

Spain is also the only country in the European Country that does not use at least 1% of GDP for giving financial help to families when the average is 2.2%. The IPF discovered that a family would need to have 12 children in order to receive similar benefits to a German family with just 2 children.

The study also found that Spain was the least flexible country with regards to benefits. Furthermore any benefits were taxable. It also highlighted the fact that the average size of a Spanish family has reduced over the last 30 years from 4 members to just 2.9 members. It also said that Spain had an ageing population with almost 2 million people aged over 80.

The study also looked at the birthrate in Spain which is very low. According to the IPF any growth in the birthrate over recent years is down to immigration. Spain was at the bottom of the table with Greece and Italy. Asturias (0.94), Galicia (1.00) and Castilla y León (1.06) had birthrates per woman well below the Spanish average which is 1.32.

Marriage statistics are also changing in Spain with less marriages and couples getting married later. The average age for marrying for a man is 33 years old and for a woman 30 years old. It also found that 4 out of 10 marriages took place in a registry office and 1 in every 7 marriages included a foreigner in the couple.

Spanish government tackles anorexia

The Ministry for Health and Fashion Companies agree on larger sizes in an effort to combat anorexia

The Minister for Health, Elena Salgado, has announced an agreement reached with Spain’s main fashion chains (el Corte Inglés, Mango, Cortefiel and Inditex…etc) for more homogeneity over clothes sizes. In addition, labels will contain information such as waist, hip and bust measurements. There will also be more effort to promote a healthy image of beauty with shop mannequins being made to a size 38 (UK size 10). As part of the agreement size 46 (UK size 16) is also to be included in the collections sold by the main fashion chains.

Salgado said that this initiative was aimed at providing consumers with more information and trying to achieve homogeneity in sizing between different fashion companies and manufacturers.

The National Institute for Consumers will be carrying out a study on 8,500 women, resident in Spain, between the ages of 12 and 70 who will be measured in order to find out what the average female body size is according to age. Participants will be given a fashion garment by way of payment.

The study will take place over the course of this year and will be financed by the National Institute for Consumers costing around a million euros. Special computerised cabins will be used to create 3 dimensional images of the women in the study, a technique that has already been successfully used in France.

Designers and fashion chains will have 18 months from the end of the study in order to implement the agreed changes to sizing and labelling. There will be a longer period of 5 years for companies to change their mannequins to a minimum of size 38.

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Spanish Justice Minister in Saudi womens rights incident

Ban on female journalists leads López Aguilar to cancel conference in Riad

The Justice minister, Juan Fernando López Aguilar, has cancelled attending a conference in an Islamic University in Riad, the capital of Saudi Arabia following the ban on 4 female journalists who were accompanying him.

The University of Imam in Riad used the fact that the University is male only as the justification not to allow the 4 journalists to attend the conference during the Justice minister’s trip to Saudi Arabia. Esther Bazán from Cadena Ser was one of the journalists affected by the ban.

In respect for Arabic tradition the journalists had gone totally covered up, dressed in black wearing head scarfs. However this was not enough for the University authorities according to Esther Bazán.

Sources from the Spanish Ministry of Justice said that it was unacceptable to participate in an act in which women were discriminated against.

The Saudi Ministry of Justice has tried to resolve the situation and in contrast with the university authorities the Spanish delegation, which included the 4 female journalists, has been respectfully received during the rest of their visit.

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75 year anniversary women's suffrage in Spain

Yesterday Madrid's Complutense University organised a party to celebrate the 75th anniversary of votes for women in Spain.

Seventy five years ago a woman called Clara Campoamor gave a passionate speech in the Spanish parliament defending the right of women to vote, following which the Republican government passed a new law giving women this right. Until then women had been considered by the Spanish governments to be unfit to participate in elections because of lack of experience or because their vote would supposedly be too heavily influenced by the opinion of the Catholic Church. However Campomor, quoting Humboldt, argued that the only way women could learn how to excercise freedom was by becoming part of the system.

Unfortunately, as events would have it, Spanish women had very little time to exercise their new right, as the Civil War broke out just two years later, and when Franco set up his dictatorship on winning the war, neither men nor women were to enjoy the right to participate in democratic elections for the next forty years.

Yesterday the Complutense University in Madrid organised a festival to commemorate the anniversary with concerts, theatre, readings of poems and stories, cinema and art exhibitions.

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Spanish fashion show rejects thinnest models

In accordance with the new regulations for this year's Cibeles fashion show 30% of models who appeared on its catwalk last year have been excluded for being too thin.

The models have been rejected because they do not comply with new rules put into place by Madrid's Regional Government demanding that models present a healthy image with at least an 18% Body Mass Index (BMI), i.e. they must weigh at least 56 kilos if their height is 1.75cms. These figures are approximately what the World Health Organization (WHO) considers to be the minimum healthy weight.

The designer Jesús del Pozo made the announcement in a press conference during which Concha Guerra, Madrid's Vice-Director of Economy and Innovative Technology laid out the new guidelines for the fashion show which starts on 18th September. She said they had taken this unprecedented step because they were aware of the influence the popular Cibeles catwalk had on young girls' perception of fashion and ideal bodies. She explained that the Madrid government were aiming for healthier-looking models and getting away from the wasting-away appearance of many models which was heavily criticised during the last Cibeles catwalk.

The announcement was made following her meeting with the principle modelling agencies and meetings with nutritional experts. The Director of the IFEMA Exhibition Centre where Cibeles is held was also involved in the consultations.

Susana Monereo, a doctor and member of the Spanish Association of Endocrinology and Nutrition has explained that BMI is related to each person's height and is an indicator of their general nutrition. Your BMI can be calculated by dividing your weight in kilos by your height squared. A healthy result should be between 18 and 25. According to the WHO a BMI less than 18.5% indicates that a person is underweight and a figure of 16.5% would require hospitalization.

This year models have been selected according to tests carried out by nutrition experts and Guerra said that the tests would be repeated just before the Cibeles catwalk is due to start (on 18th September). As well as insisting on a minimum BMI, the organisers will not allow models under 18 years of age to appear on the catwalk.

This is the first time an internationl fashion show has adopted such measures in order to avoid promoting a distorted image of beauty something which has been associated with anorexia and bulimia. As well as, models under 18 being forbidden from participating there are rules on the models' make up too.

Del Pozo, who took part in the meetings as a representative of the Association of Fashion Designers has admitted that although the new parameters may cause problems when selecting models it was well worth it in order to set a good example given the problems related to diet and weight in society today. He also drew attention to the fact that fashion photos are also manipulated using programmes like photoshop.

Monereo said that placing too much emphasis on being thin is a serious heath risk. Not only because it is related to illnesses such as anorexia and bulimia but because it is also linked to problems with fertility, hormone imbalance and osteoporosis. In her opinion it is a social problem whose solution ultimately depends on everyone.

Women soldiers in Spanish army

According to a report on Spanish radio, there are more women serving in the Spanish army than in any other army in Europe. Compulsory military service for men in Spain was ended relatively recently, by the PP government in 2001, in a move which was greeted with wide support among the majority of the Spanish electorate. Only a few years earlier, consciencious objecters refusing to do their military service faced prison or 18 months compulsory "voluntary" service.

When military service was abolished, the Spanish armed forces faced with the challenge of recruiting professional soldiers rather than relying on the bulk of young men doing military service, embarked on a series of high-profile publicity campaigns aimed at persuading young people to consider joining the army as the first step in a long and stable professional career.

Judging by the figures released by Cadena Ser yesterday, the campaigns seem to have been particularly successful among young women, as the number of female soldiers and marines has shot up in the past few years to the extent that this year no less than 14,300 women serve in the Spanish army, that is 13.5 percent of the whole armed forces. This means that Spain has the largest number of women soldiers of all EU member states, and the third largest in NATO member states, behind the USA and Canada.

Spain is EU leader in terms of rise in women workers

According to an article published by El Mundo this morning, the rise in women's employment in Spain last year was the highest among European Union member states.

The number of women workers in Spain rose by 4.6 percent, significantly higher than the EU average of just 1.1 percent.

Italy and Greece rank just behind Spain with rises of 4.3 and 4.1 percent respectively, followed by Ireland (3.3 percent), Luxemburg (1.6 percent) and the UK (1.2 percent). None of the other EU member states reached the EU average of 1.1 percent.

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Women in Spain

Today is International Women's Day, and if anyone had any doubt just how much the situation of women in Spain has changed over the past fifty years, an e-mail sent to the euroresidentes mailbox this morning serves to illustrate the complete transformation of the role of women in Spanish society.

The email contains a collection of some short extracts taken from publications of Seccion Feminina, the organization under Franco that was in charge of the indoctrination and formation of the new Spanish woman. And they have to be read to be believed.

"Throughout her life, the mission of women is to serve. When God made the first man, he thought "It is not good for man to be lonely". And he made woman to help and accompany man, and to serve as a mother. God's first idea was "man". He thought of woman afterwards, as a necesary complement, as something useful" (Public and Social Studies, Secondary Education, 1962)

"When you get married, your name will become your first name, your first surname, then "de" (of) and then your husband's surname. Like this: Carmen Garcia de Marin. This is a pleasant formula, as we do not lose our personality, but we become Carmen Garcia who belongs to Mr Marin, that is Carmen Garcia of Marín" (syllabus of the course Domestic Economy for secondary school and teachers training level, 1968).

"The life of all women, however much they may pretend otherwise, is no more than an eternal search to find someone to whom they can submit themselves" (1944).

"When he arrives home from work, have a delicious meal ready for him...Take off his shoes. Speak in a low, relaxed and pleasant tone. Get ready - touch up your make-up, put a ribbon in your hair. Make yourself look a little more interesting for him. He may need a bit of cheer after his hard days work, and your job is to give it to him. Looking after his needs will provide you with immense personal satisfaction.

Minimise all noise. When he arrives, turn off the noise of the washing machine or vaccum cleaner. Greet him with a warm smile and show him that you want to please him. Listen to him, let him speak first - remember that his topics of conversation are more important than yours. Never complain if he arrives late, or if he goes out to dine or enjoy himself without you. Try rather to understand his world of tension and stress and his real needs... Remember he is the master of your house.

Encourage him to enjoy his hobbies and support him without being too insistant. If you have a hobby, don't bore him by talking about it because womens' interests are trivial compared with the interests of men. ...

At bedtime prepare the bed as quickly as possible. Although feminine hygiene is of maximum importance, your husband should not be expected to have to wait to use the bathroom. Remember you should look perfect at bed time. If you have to put face cream or hair-rollers on, wait until he is asleep as both can alarm a man last thing at night. As far as intimate relations are concerned, you must remember your marriage obligations. If he needs to sleep, let him. Do not intrude his privacy or stimulate him. If your husband initiates the act, then you should agree to it humbly, always bearing in mind that his satisfaction is more important than that of a woman. When the peak arrives, a small noise from you will be enough to express any enjoyment you may have felt. If your husband asks you to participate in unusual sexual practises, be obedient and do not complain" (Domestic Economy for secondary school and teachers training level, 1958).

Today Spain has more women ministers than any other European government, and one of the firmest and most repeated commitments of Spanish President Rodriguez Zapatero is to extend further womens rights in terms of working conditions, pay, positive descrimination, protection from domestic violence etc. Much progress still has to be made, but the extent to which the role of women in Spain has progressed over the last 30 years is a tribute to Spanish democracy (and a great relief to all of us women living here). Feliz dia de la Mujer!

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