Last week, the details of the draft of the new Law for Abortion were made public. It went before the Inter-territorial Health Council last Monday, then it will go before the State Council, and finally it will be passed as a Royal Decree at the Council of Ministers.

These new regulations would help doctors to decide whether to authorise an under-age girl to abort without her parents´ knowledge. The Medical Board Organization (OMC, according to its initials in Spanish) considers that these regulations could generate "legal insecurity" in the group which will ultimately be responsible for the decision.

Trinidad Jiménez, the Spanish Minister for Health and Social Policy, has said that young girls who decide to end their pregnancy usually go to the health centre accompanied by their parents or legal guardians. If this doesn´t happen, and if the under-age girl states that she is "afraid of suffering domestic violence, coercion, or any kind of pressure that may go against her will", it will be the doctor who authorises the termination of pregnancy without her parents´ knowledge.

"The doctor has to evaluate the circumstances that the young girl is explaining to him", commented Jiménez. She said that if the doctor is in any doubt, he can ask for a "report from a psychologist or a social worker who certifies that her fear is justified". The Minister consideres that this measure "maintains the spirit" of the Law, the text of which states that the decision corresponds to the young girl herself, although she must inform her parents. There are exceptions to this obligation: possible mistreatment or coercion.

Another novelty announced by the Minister is that sex education will be taught in schools by health professionals from nursing, as proposed by the National Strategy for Sexual and Reproductive Health.

The goal of this project is to reduce unplanned pregnancies and thus reduce the number of abortions, which amounted to 115,812 in 2008. The OMC thinks that this new law is unnecessary, and has criticised th e fact that "when an under-age girl says that informing her parents would cause her problems, the responsibility for accepting the abortion would pass to the doctor, and it shouldn´t be like that", because the role of the doctor should be "to mediate" between the parents and the girl.

The Government authorised a year ago the free hand-out of the emergency contraceptive Levonorgestrel, the ´morning-after pill´, which had already been freely distributed in Catalonia for 5 years in hospitals and public health centres. Oddly, the demand for this pill in medical centres in Catalonia has decreased by 30% this last year, but has increased “by three or four times" in chemists, where it costs 20 Euros. The possible reason for this may be that users try to avoid the advice that usually comes with the medicine, as well as the small influence this allows medical staff to exercise over the patient.

When the pill is handed to a young girl, the doctor or nurse that sees her usually reminds her that the substance must not be taken as a contraceptive of frequent use, because of its high hormonal content. Chemists though weren´t authorised by the Ministry to give advice about the pill, so they simply sell it. They have discovered that some people buy the pill on a weekly basis.

The main idea when the free sale of the ´morning-after pill´ in chemists was approved was to allow women, who live in regions where the government rejects the pill because they consider it an abortion pill (like Navarre, for instance), to obtain it at the chemist´s. Gynaecologists explain that Levonorgestrel is not an abortion pill, but a pill that avoids pregnancy, or an emergency contraceptive. Its precise effect is still under discussion.