Until recently, tough restrictions forced Spanish women to go abroad for abortions – in such numbers that regular charter flights to London were set up. In 2010 the Socialist government introduced a new law permitting early-term abortion, bringing Spain into line with the rest of Europe. But now conservative justice minister Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón wants to turn back the clock, allowing abortion only in cases of rape and severe ill health – to the delight of Spain’s Catholic Church. Voters overwhelmingly oppose the change, but he’s standing firm, arguing it will help protect a woman’s “right to maternity”. He even claims an increase in birth rates is just what Spain needs to get the economy moving.

The new law does not allow for abortion where the baby is likely to be born with disabilities. It does require two doctors to agree that giving birth will cause the patient harm, while under the old law only one was needed. Poor women are expected resort to illegal backstreet clinics, while the better-off will have to go abroad, as they always did before, entrenching class divisions. (Edited from an article in The Week).

Epicurus, the first known philosopher to welcome women as equals into his garden groups, would strongly support allowing women to make their own choices, and would have opposed this persistent intrusion into the bedroom that is a hallmark of reactionaries, nearly all men (!), mark you. And, by the way, making abortion difficult does nothing statistically to increase the population. Another myth. How long do we have to be patient and polite with these people with antediluvian attitudes?