The debate on abortion is a shifting ground for the PP. The popular leaders avoid positioning themselves so as not to anger one or the other half of their electorate, according to each one. Just yesterday, the deputy secretary general Esteban González Pons avoided getting wet, to questions from journalists. But the internal arguments of the party that EL MUNDO has accessed do offer details on the position in the face of such a “complex and sensitive” debate.
“There must be a middle ground,” is the conclusion reached in the national leadership of the popular. On account of the ruling of the Supreme Court of the United States that has prohibited the federal right to abortion, the PP believes that a Solomonic solution must be sought, “between the doctrine that existed, which considered abortion a right and that allowed abortions in cases very advanced in gestation; and the new situation that is now opening up, in which there is a risk of criminalizing women who find themselves in very complicated situations.”
That is why the argument that the PP distributed yesterday to their positions ensures that “in Spain the Government should take note” of the US case and “think about the well-being of women and seek dialogue and consensus with everyone instead of defending a ideological posture that generates enormous confrontations in Spanish society». In other words, learn from the American experience and transcend polarization.
What the PP is demanding is that the coalition Executive abandon the idea of its new Abortion Law, which will allow the termination of pregnancy for those under 16 years of age without parental consent, and agree with them on an intermediate path. “Even socialist voters dislike” the new measure for minors, says a prominent popular. “This law is a hodgepodge that mixes abortion with painful rules,” judges the document for internal use of the popular ones.
The PP resigns from leading the anti-abortion protests and gives freedom to its supporters
The text emphasizes that the PP spokesmen should not opt -in public- for any categorical solution on abortion. Instead, they must leave the debate open to the beliefs of each one: “Abortion is a matter of enormous complexity in which there are many positions and we would do society a disservice by defending absolute and Manichaean positions.”
That is why the main opposition party defends “the freedom” of its members to “attend any demonstration that is held with respect for the law and the Constitution.” “More, if possible, in an issue like this,” they reinforce. “It is a mistake to use abortion to divide society,” Feijóo said last night in an act of La Razón. “We believe that a minor should have parental consent,” he added. “The situation must be regulated, but looking for what we have in common” and “with a great consensus,” he added.
It should be noted that no PP leader attended the anti-abortion demonstration that was held on Sunday in Madrid, to which Santiago Abascal, president of Vox, did attend. “We understand that our party should not be the protagonist of the mobilization,” reads the internal document of the popular.
To understand the discursive crossroads at which the popular spokespersons find themselves in this matter, this paragraph of the argument is key: «The PP is not a monolithic party, there are different sensitivities and more so in an issue as complex and as sensitive as this one, which deserves a serene and thoughtful social debate, far from the smoke screens that the PSOE is looking for».
“We would do a disservice by defending absolute and Manichaean positions,” he adds.
Feijóo has no special interest in reopening the abortion debate, and is waiting for the Constitutional Court (TC) to rule on the appeal filed by his party against José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero’s Abortion Law. “There is a law that is appealed to the TC and the normal thing would be to wait for it to resolve, but the PSOE does not want to wait because it really cares little about the well-being of women,” accuses the argument. González Pons, who refused to assess the ruling of the US Supreme Court, did enter briefly on this point, assuring that “there is no change in the PP’s position”, and adding that when a party presents an appeal “it is interested in it prospering”.
The PP presented in 2010 that appeal before the TC. A year later, in November 2011, Rajoy arrived in Moncloa and opted in 2015 to modify the current norm so that parental consent was necessary for minors under 16 and 17 years of age who wish to have an abortion.
Asked about how he values the statements of the vice president of Castilla y León, Juan García-Gallardo (Vox), who said that the trivialization of sex is a cause of depopulation, Pons pointed out that statements like that should not be made.
The march against abortion that was held on Sunday in Madrid was led by NEOS, the Christian platform of former PP Interior Minister Jaime Mayor Oreja, among others. Among those attending the demonstration was the leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal, as well as some members of his party, such as Iván Espinosa de los Monteros, Rocío Monasterio or Jorge Buxadé. No national PP leader attended, but Feijóo gave “freedom” to demonstrate.
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