There are already several occasions in recent years in which to the anti -abortion crusade of the extreme right is added the Popular Party. It happened on Tuesday at the Madrid City Council, where the PP of Mayor José Luis Martínez Almeida approved a Vox proposal that forces women to be informed of the “post abortion syndrome” and that has had the support of the PP nationwide. However, this is an alleged disorder without scientific evidence that frequently exploit ultracatolic groups, in Spain and outside, to knock down the right to voluntary interruption of pregnancy.
The initiative, presented by the Vox councilor Carla Toscano, does not hide her background and notes that “ending the life of her own child has very serious consequences for the mother, the father and society in general.” The text encompasses in the “post abortion syndrome” a conglomerate of symptoms and factors ranging from depression and anxiety, sleep alterations, alcohol and drug use, suicidal thoughts or loss of sexual pleasure. This is what, if applied, would have to be obliged to tell “verbally and written” to women the workers of the Centers of Madrid Health, the Social Samur and the municipal social workers, in addition to incorporating the information into official websites, posters and brochures.
“There is no scientific evidence and there is no corpus of knowledge, of studies done with rigor and with an adequate sample, which allows us to talk about this syndrome. Professionals are going to be forced to lie to women at fear and coercion,” summarizes the psychologist specialized in sexual and reproductive rights Raquel Hurtado, which points to what there is scientific literature is “the positive psychological effects that have a positive psychological effects for women. that they do not want “and that coincides with emotions such as” security, relief or greater control over their lives. ”
“That does not mean that there are no women who live with doubts or anguish abortion, but in no way would it enter a diagnostic category,” adds the psychologist. Francisca García, medical director of two Andalusian clinics and president of the Association of Clinics accredited for the IVE (ACAI), explains that, in addition, available studies underline that negative emotions – “No pathologies”, remarks – that some women “are conditioned above all by the support of their environment, the importance of abortion of abortion in their lives and the type of health accompaniment and the type of health accompaniment and the type of accompanying.
The “post abortion syndrome” is not collected in the manuals of classification of mental reference disorders, nor in the World Health Organization (CIE-11) or in the DSM V of the American Psychiatric Association. “It has been widely studied and the conclusion is that its existence has no support of scientific evidence. Even some studies indicate greater psychological impact on women who are denied their request to interrupt pregnancy,” says Ezequiel Pérez Campos, chief of gynecology at the Hospital de Requena and Patron of the Spanish Contraception Foundation.
Ultra -Catholic ideology
There is no doubt among the expert voices consulted in the fact that, after the initiative of the Madrid City Council, there is no science, but anti -nature ideology. Pérez Campos qualifies as “essential” to provide rigorous scientific information to women who request to submit to an abortion “so that their decision is not conditioned by partial and intentional opinions” and ensures that what PP and Vox are doing is “to turn ideology into a pseudoscientific and biased statement that confuses women and manipulates their free decision and the principle of autonomy.” “It is they who will apply their ideology. Rights are not obligations,” adds the gynecologist.
Own Abortion Law It already establishes, in fact, that women should receive “clear, objective and understandable” information on the interruption of pregnancy, also of their usual “risks and consequences” of any intervention. The standard eliminated with the reform of 2023 the three days of reflection and also the obligation that women receive data on advice centers or public aids for pregnant women, which has become optional. In addition, it reinforced the obligation of public administrations to ensure that the law is exercised without pressure.
That is why Silvia Aldavert, coordinator of L'Sssociació de Drets Sexes I Reproductius, believes that the new Madrid initiative breaches the law, specifically, article 24.2, also introduced after the reform and that it sends to public administrations to “ensure that the applicant is recipient of practices that intend to alter, either to strengthen, revoke or delay their decision” implemented “with the exception of essential and relevant clinical information.” And it follows “diagnostic and therapeutic interventions associated with the decision and practice of pregnancy interruption must be based, in any case, on scientific evidence.”
The government is precisely studying the legal viability of the proposal, as announced by the Ministries of Health and Equality. In the presentation press conference of the latest abortions, 2024, Mónica García has affirmed that his department will evaluate the “legal” consequences of the measure while Ana Redondo has assured that “the ministry teams are valuing whether it is possible to challenge the decision.” For her part, the PP spokeswoman in Congress, Ana Muñoz, has defended the proposal by stating that “information is never a problem.”
However, the choice of this type of information is not accidental: it is common that the reference to the “post abortion syndrome” is incorporated in the websites of anti -abortion associations and disseminate it in their public campaigns. The Red Madre Foundation, for example, includes in its heading “thinking about aborting” the category “Physical Risks of Abortion” and “Post Abortion”, illustrated with the photograph of a woman with her hands in her face in an anguishing situation. “The existence of the syndrome has been defended by associations against civil rights for a long time to condition free choice based on ideology and not on scientific evidence,” says Pérez Campos.
Along the same lines Aldavert, which recalls the proposal announced by Vox in Castilla y León that women listen to the “fetal beat” before aborting, a measure that the groups defend, the groups defend, the groups defend the groups, think tanks and anti -abortion leaders worldwide. “The Madrid initiative is part of the internationally orchestrated strategies by the antielection and extreme right groups: if you cannot knock the law, put all possible obstacles so that it is not met,” concludes the coordinator of L'Associació de Drets sexes i reproductius