Overview

• The Council of Ministers approved an initial draft to add a new Article 43.4 recognizing the right to voluntary interruption of pregnancy and obliging public authorities to guarantee its provision under conditions of effective equality.
• Before reaching Parliament, the government has requested the mandatory report from the Council of State, with the Ministry of Equality aiming to send the proposal to Congress in January.
• The chosen route is the ordinary reform procedure under Article 167, which does not dissolve the Cortes and allows a referendum if requested by at least a tenth of either chamber.
• Parliamentary arithmetic makes PP backing essential to reach the three-fifths thresholds in both chambers, and the party has already stated it will oppose the reform.
• Allied parties voiced reservations about the draft’s scope, with Sumar calling the wording insufficient because regulation would rest in ordinary law, while Podemos labeled it a mere headline and Compromís criticized it as partisan; in parallel, the Catalan Parliament backed a move to protect abortion in the Estatut.