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Spain Considers Paid Time Off for Women With Severe Period Symptoms


MADRID – The Spanish government on Tuesday approved a draft law that would make Spain the first European country to allow women to take time off work because of menstrual cramps, as well as expand access to abortion.

Under the new law, women have the right to take leave if a doctor diagnoses them with severe menstrual cramps. Costs will be covered by the state. Among other measures to help women with their periods, Spain’s leftist government also decided that schools should provide tampons to students who ask for them.

The regulatory changes to support women during their periods are part of a broader legal overhaul that the Socialist-led government wants Parliament to pass with the goal of strengthening abortion rights. of women. The draft bill expands access to abortion for minors, allowing the procedure to be performed from the age of 16 without parental or guardian consent, as requested. It would also remove a previous rule that required a woman to confirm her choice three days after her initial request for an abortion.

Spain’s Equality Minister Irene Montero, who is pushing for the law, defended it as a necessary response to decades-old demands by feminist associations to strengthen their rights. women’s health. “This is the law that shows what Spain is and what the feminist movement is in Spain,” Ms. Montero speak on the Spanish national television breakfast program. “We will be the first European country to talk about menstrual health as a health standard and we will remove the stigma, shame and guilt, as well as the loneliness that women often experience. during menstruation”.

The government’s plan comes amid a protracted ideological battle in Spain over abortion. Right-wing opposition parties, led by the Popular Party and with the backing of the Catholic Church, have appealed to the Constitutional Court to demand the repeal of Spain’s most recent abortion law, approved by the Constitutional Court. passed in 2010 under a previous Socialist government. The 2010 law stipulates that a woman’s abortion period is 14 weeks, which can be extended to 22 weeks if there is a risk of serious birth defects.

In recent weeks, several right-wing lawmakers have latched onto a leaked document suggesting that the US Supreme Court will overturn abortion rights in the US, to bolster their claim that a similar legal turnaround is needed in Spain. The debate in the United States has been spurred by the publication this month of a draft court opinion regarding Roe v. Waderuling respecting abortion rights in the United States nearly 50 years ago.

In Spain, abortion was brought to power by the first Socialist government in 1985 after Spain’s return to democracy, but the issue has since remained a political one. , can change the law every time another government comes to power. A decade ago, a conservative government sought to push for legal changes that would significantly limit abortions. After mass street protests, the project was canceled, forcing the Attorney General who had pushed it to resign.

Draft law to ensure access to abortion in public hospitals in a country with many doctors refuse to perform them, forcing women to go to private clinics or travel elsewhere. The draft bill would notably force regional governments to set up a registry of doctors who refuse to perform abortions.

The draft law places attention on dysmenorrhea, the intense pain that women can experience during their period and that can make them so debilitating that they can’t work. But the medical profession in Spain is also divided over whether the treatment of menstrual problems requires a specific law.

Hortensia García Briz, a gynecologist, said: “I really don’t understand why we need this new law when there are now so many options for most women to avoid suffering debilitating pain. may make them unable to work. in Madrid. “I think the feminist movement in this country has been pushing things to the extreme and out of context, which is not really helpful for women,” she added. “I believe the exact aim should be to clearly define a woman’s period as something that should be painful, and instead make it clear that gynecologists have designed many products to make it comfortable. .”

Only a few countries worldwide – mostly in Asia – have approved law Serves women with menstrual pain. In 1947, Japan became the first country to allow women to take menstrual leave, but its use has declined in recent decades, the drop being largely due to societal pressure to force women to work. . Lawmakers in Italy debated legislation allowing women to take a period off, but the Italian Parliament rejected the idea in 2017.

Faride Ojeda, a gynecologist at a private hospital in Madrid, says that the only positive aspect of the government’s menstrual law is that it will guarantee pay for women when they take time off from work, but “as a woman” As a feminist as well as a gynecologist, I don’t want a law that treats this phase as an illness and could even convince more men not to recruit more women and thus further reduce their chances our association at work. “

In Madrid, government officials said on Tuesday that they hoped that the law could come into force before the end of next year, as Spain prepares to hold its next national elections. But the bill faces a tough road before that and may also have to go through some amendments during the review process by both houses of Parliament.

Even before Tuesday’s presentation, the details of the draft bill had caused tension within the coalition government, including its estimated cost. Ms. Montero, the equality minister, failed to push ahead with her proposal to eliminate the value-added tax on the sale of tampons and other related products.





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