The short news is that the Constitutional Court has rejected by majority the appeal of unconstitutionality, filed 13 years ago, against the Organic Law 2/2010, of March 3, on sexual and reproductive health and the voluntary interruption of pregnancy, better known as the Abortion Law.
The aforementioned Organic Law is declared fully constitutional and may be enacted in the same terms in which it was approved by Congress.
In this matter, I believe that it is not enough to proclaim a rejection, a simple opposition. It is necessary to go into detail in order to substantiate this opinion.
The Court has rejected, as we have said, the appeal filed in 2010 by the PP against the aforementioned law, approved under the government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, by not endorsing the draft sentence proposed by Judge Enrique Arnaldo, in response to that appeal.
In this draft, the rapporteur understood that the aforementioned law was compatible with Article 15 of the Constitution ("....Everyone has the right to life..."), although it had reservations regarding the regulation of the information to be provided to the woman before making the decision (Art. 17.5), by not obliging her to receive it verbally, and the protection of the right to conscientious objection of healthcare personnel (Art. 19.2), as it was felt that the wording of the regulation in the proposed terms left a margin of interpretation that left objectors unprotected.
Beyond these clarifications, there are some points that should be emphasized, the most decisive of which, perhaps, is the recognition of abortion as a "fundamental right that protects the right to life..., to ideological freedom and to non-discrimination" (art. 12).to ideological freedom and non-discrimination" (art. 12), thus contrasting the supposed right to abortion, or the right to the life of the unborn, with the right to life of the woman, and also considers that the acceptance or not of abortion is an ideological question, and that respect for life becomes relative, depending on the opinion of each individual. It is also striking that abortion is approved so that women do not feel discriminated against, discriminated against whom?
Article 15.b), which establishes the authorization of abortion within the first twenty-two weeks of pregnancy whenever there is a risk of serious anomalies in the fetus, is ambiguous, as it leaves a wide margin of discretion to interpret what "serious anomalies" are and whether they are irreversible.
While the TC was ruling, the Congress has already modified the law in an even more radical sense, by eliminating the three-day period of reflection before abortion and allowing young women to have an abortion from the age of 16 without parental permission, in addition to prohibiting any activity, near abortion centers, aimed at offering alternative information to women who go to these centers.
We have expanded on the content of the law in order to have a clear, albeit succinct, idea of the current state of the matter.
In view of this situation, it is no good to think that this is a personal matter that concerns those who abort or perform abortions; but this is not so, the deterioration of society affects us all and it is the responsibility of all, not only of Christians, to intervene to correct this drift.
The brotherhoods are public associations of the faithful of the Catholic Church that have among their missions, entrusted by the Church, "the sanctification of society from within" (cfr. c.298 CIC). Thus the participation of the brotherhoods in the defense of the life of the unborn is not a minor matter, nor is it optional, it is part of their mission.
A defense that goes beyond institutional declarations. It is necessary to go a step further, as some sisterhoods have already done, creating help centers for pregnant women or collaborating in some way with other social initiatives for the same purpose.
It is also decisive to enter into the battle of public opinion, with well-founded opinions, dismantling the idea that those who deny individual liberties and the right to life are progressives; no, progressives are those who are committed to the recognition of the dignity of the person and the defense of his fundamental rights, as stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations 1948), among them "the right of everyone to life" (art. 3) and "to legal protection, without discrimination" (art. 7). This opens up a field of work for the sisterhoods that urgently needs to be explored.
D. in Business Administration. Director of the Instituto de Investigación Aplicada a la Pyme. Eldest Brother (2017-2020) of the Brotherhood of the Soledad de San Lorenzo, in Seville. He has published several books, monographs and articles on brotherhoods.
