GUE/NGL MEPs welcomed the Spanish government's plan to withdraw a highly-unpopular and hardline reform of the country's abortion legislation which brought hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets in protest in the past months, not only in Spain but Europe-wide.

 

Malin Björk, GUE/NGL coordinator on the Parliament's women's rights committee, said: “This is the result of feminist solidarity and women's mobilisation. Women's bodies are still a battleground, but this is a battle we won. It gives hope for the future.”

 

Ángela Vallina, Spanish member of the women's rights committee, said: “This is a victory of the massive social mobilization against the Popular Party's mandate: demonstrations, protests, international solidarity and the political initiatives organised by groups such as the GUE/NGL, for example, which circulated a declaration against the reform signed by more than 200 MEPs. All this has forced the Spanish Government to put a stop to these retrograde measures.”

 

“Today we celebrate a victory of the feminist movement. Today, every woman has something very important to celebrate: even one of the most retrograde governments in the EU cannot attack our rights because the feminist movement is so strong all around Europe.”

 

MEP Vallina also welcomed the news that Justice Minister Alberto Ruiz Gallardón, responsible for this legislation, had resigned.