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- Abortion in Francoist Spain and the transition period was illegal. Francoists opposed abortion because it interfered with Spanish population growth. Feminists in the early Francoist period and until the mid-1960s largely did not connect abortion with women's rights. Abortion was only briefly legal in Spain in this period in Catalonia in the final days of the Spanish Civil War. Abortion was formally made a crime against the state by Franco in January 1941, with criminal sentences, fines and loss of rights for women, medical professionals who performed abortions and pharmacists who provided drugs to facilitate abortions. They were allied in their actions by the Roman Catholic Church. The state made huge efforts to keep women ignorant about birth control and abortion. But women still had abortions. Starting in the mid-1960s, feminists took up the cause of abortion rights. By the 1970s, women were going to England, Wales, the Netherlands and North Africa for abortions. Following the death of Franco in 1975, more serious discussions about legalizing abortion began to take place. The PSOE (PSOE) and the Communist Party of Spain (PCE) both tried to legalize abortion and divorce in the first draft of the 1978 Spanish Constitution. While a compromise related to divorce was reached, the Union of the Democratic Centre (UCD) and the People's Coalition both opposed it and were able to insert language into the constitution that undermined future potential abortion rights. Abortion was finally passed in 1983, but did not become legal until 1985 as a result of constitutional objections by the Partido Popular (PP) or People's Party. The PP, along with anti-abortion activists, would continue to try to hinder legal abortion in Spain. (en)
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