Causes.com
| 2.17.23

Spain Approves Menstrual Leave, Teen Abortion, and Transgender Rights
Should more countries do the same?
What’s the story?
- On Thursday, Spain approved legislation to expand abortion access for teenagers, transgender rights nationwide, and paid menstrual leave for workers.
- Spain is the first European country to entitle workers to paid menstrual leave.
What do the new laws allow?
- The new laws allow 16- and 17-year-olds to receive an abortion without parental consent.
- State-run healthcare centers will offer free access to hormonal contraceptives and the morning-after pill, while menstrual products will be free in schools and prisons.
- The change around menstrual leave also encompasses period pains, allowing those with debilitating symptoms to take paid time off.
- The new measures enshrine the right to have an abortion at a state hospital. More than 80% of termination procedures occur in private clinics in Spain, mainly due to the high number of doctors at public hospitals who refuse to perform them due to religious reasons. Doctors in the public system will be allowed to register their objections in writing.
- In a separate package, lawmakers strengthened transgender rights, allowing anyone over 16 to change their legally registered gender without medical approval. Teenagers between the ages of 12-13 will need a judge’s authorization, and those between 14 and 16 will need to be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. Previous to the new measure, transgender people needed a medical diagnosis for gender dysphoria.
- This package also bans conversion therapy and allows state-provided support for LGBTQIA+ women seeking IVF treatment.
- Additionally, the center-left coalition government is working on the “Only Yes Means Yes” Law, which makes verbal consent a key component in cases of sexual assault. Equality Minister Irene Montero, who is behind these various new measures, is under fire after the sexual assault law inadvertently led to prison sentence reductions for hundreds of sex offenders.
What they’re saying
- Montero said in her speech to Congress on Thursday:
“This is a law that recognizes trans people’s right to freely decide their gender identity. It stops trans realities being treated as abnormalities. Trans people aren’t sick people; they’re people - full stop. They are who they are - full stop. Trans women are women - full stop. From today, the state recognizes that.”
- The Popular Party is greatly criticizing the ill-received “Only Yes Means Yes” law and warned the Spanish government of going too far, too fast. María Jesús Moro, a party spokesperson, said:
“We all know of the other countries that have backtracked on their ‘trans laws’ because they now know that they got ahead of themselves and that that caused a lot of suffering. Let’s not have the same thing here.”
What do you think? Should more countries do the same?
-Jamie Epstein
(Photo credit: Flickr/Associació Ciutadania)
The Latest
-
Cop28 Draft Deal Does Not Include Fossil Fuel Phase OutUpdated Dec. 11, 2023, 2:30 p.m. EST The U.N.'s draft deal from the Cop28 summit highlights various options to reduce greenhouse read more... Environment
-
BILL: Federal Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Act of 2023 (S.3205)Federal Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Act of 2023 Bill Overview Title: Federal Artificial Intelligence Risk Management read more... Artificial Intelligence
-
IT: U.S. vetoes the U.N.'s resolution for a ceasefire, and... Do you support Tuberville's block?Welcome to Monday, December 11th, friends... The U.S. vetoed a U.N. resolution demanding a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. The read more...
-
U.S. Vetoes U.N. Resolution Demanding Israel-Hamas CeasefireUpdated Dec. 11, 2023, 10:00 a.m. EST As global calls for another halt in the fighting grow, the U.S. vetoed a U.N. resolution read more... Israel
It feel honored and humbled to be an American, the country that once led the world with the example of our country's democracy and the fostering of Democratic governances around the world. I am honored and humbled by our governance when Jimmy Carter made basic human rights an international issue as well as developing non-nuclear profliefration treaties with some teeth to control the spread of nuclear weapons.
I feel ashamed and humbled by how far behind we are in the basic issues of equal human rights, care and equal opportunity for all of the non-privileged people in our society - aspects where our country is far behind peer industrialized demcracies.
Accepting the special needs of females and implementing policies for their self-care is yet another example of how far behind we are continuing to be separated from the ideals that our constitution and other founding documents so well articulated - that other demiocracies have embraced and acted upon for the benefit of their people.
Our country has essentially been bought out by wealthy industrialists as a tool to ensure the sustained accumulation of their wealth. Our less than well educated general populace is being used as pawns who are being duped by centralized propaganda that plays off of their grievances without ever addressing those grievances head on.
We can learn a lot by watching other demcracies, founded by the democracy we once enjoyed, doing the things necessary for the common good of all of the people instead of for the good of just the wealthy entitled.
Thank you Spain for your great example. I hope our country will learn from your eample instead of continuing on the track of restoring the morès of the 1830's.
Whilel, I can understand the need for a sick day on a menstrual day, I don't like the idea of having to identify what your sick day is. One should not have to disclose their specific health issues.
WOW Spain has gone totally WOKE. I am assuming that a trans man who now identifies as a woman will be able to get menstrual leave?
Spain is the 1st European country to offer menstrual leave and joins a small number of countries worldwide (Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia, South Korea, Zambia) which part of a larger legislative package on reproductive rights (abortion, gender change). This is a big change for Spain which is usually a very conservative country. If Spain and other countries worldwide can offer enlightened healthcare policies then the US and other developed countries with more resources should be doing the same.
"The bill approved by Parliament on Thursday is part of a broader package on sexual and reproductive rights that includes allowing anyone 16 and over to get an abortion or freely change the gender on their ID card."
"The law gives the right to a three-day “menstrual” leave of absence - with the possibility of extending it to five days - for those with disabling periods, which can cause severe cramps, nausea, dizziness and even vomiting."
"Worldwide, menstrual leave is currently offered only in a small number of countries including Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia, South Korea and Zambia."
https://www.euronews.com/next/2023/02/16/spain-set-to-become-the-first-european-country-to-introduce-a-3-day-menstrual-leave-for-wo
Good for Spain! More countries, the USA included, should take a page out of this book. This decision is a rational one and should be adopted by all. Don't forget that Spain is a strong Catholic country and if they can accomplish this stance so can Evangilists and other so-called "Christian" countries.
16 and 17 year olds are under the age of majority. There is no reason a judge should be inserting themself in a family matter. Also, any judge the sanctions abortion should immediately be removed from the bench. Abortion is murder and the States are bound to protect Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness as outlined in the Declaration of Independence. As for Trans rights for teens, they need to seek help for their mental disease. I would oppose paid menstrual leave. Menstration is a biological process. Why should an employer be forced to pay someone who is not productive? Nothing in this world is free. This cost would be passed along to the customers. When you add up all of the issues that everyone is so "passionate" about and then try to monetize them you are going to price yourself out of the market.
Spain has come such a long way from their old views. As a country that had a huge Catholic influence on how their country was governed, this shows that a county should not be stuck in their ways. America is supposedly the land of the free, yet none of the things that were passed in Spain are in our laws. Where is the equality, freedom, and protection we pride ourselves in?
Wow! Who cares about Spain? I sure don't.
put yourself in our shoes
again, America needs to follow the lead of more progressive nations, and unburry its collective head from the sand.
I wish all countries had similar policies
If you've never had a period, do your research. If you have, you know even more research is needed: there's no one-size-fits-all treatment or cure for Premenstrual Syndrome.
This legislation has my support.
Spains government should support whatever the voters voted for.
I support all of these
Yes, more countries should follow.
Shouldn't be up to countries, only women can decide this issue for themselves!
Every country should but most importantly, THIS one! All that + more is being targeted by republicans here in the grand ol' USA...where we are supposed to be known for our "freedoms"
How sad that another country-and one with a Monarchy at that-is better on Human Rights than the United States! The lawmakers on The Hill should be ashamed!
Funny how my travels abroad have always made me scratch my head. How dare we consider ourselves "advanced". We have become basic hillbillies in the eyes of the world. Rightly so. Arrogance is foolhardy. People should start voting with sense and walk away from the propaganda and manipulation. Due your research before you vote. Look at voting records! Do background checks! Stop allowing yourselves to be snowed. Actual research doesn't take as long as you think.
The health issues of woman and other marginalized groups need to be recognized, and access provided. It's been too long that white men have denied woman access and recognition for the unique aspects/needs of women's biology.
Spain is taking care of their women and transgenders.
Finally a woman stood up to protect women's rights to take care of their bodies.
CAUSES TELLS ME, THEN ASKS: "Spain Approves Menstrual Leave, Teen Abortion, and Transgender Rights. Should more countries do the same?" ME: Absolutely! And starting here. 'nough said.
But republicans will kill any of this as, my god, they are women. We hate women especially minority ones. Bdkntblisten to their objections just look at their laws.