The same week that the mammogram scandal in Andalusia escalated to the point of causing a crisis in Moreno Bonilla's government, Isabel Díaz Ayuso opened another confrontation with Alberto Núñez Feijóo, inviting the left to "go get an abortion somewhere else," that is, outside of Madrid. Ayuso's words, in language very similar to that of anti-abortion Catholic groups, have been surprising because they represent a change in the discourse of the Madrid president, who until now aligned herself with the party's more liberal theses and even distanced herself when she defended the right to abortion for minors. Her pronouncement forced Feijóo to issue a statement clarifying the party's position, which is to guarantee the right to abortion in accordance with the law.
But is it true that the PP guarantees the right to abortion wherever it governs? The figures indicate that there is a vast gap between Feijóo's claims and reality. The reality is that obtaining abortions in the public health system in regions like Madrid and Andalusia is almost impossible, with percentages below 1%, indicating that almost all end up being performed in the private sector. In Catalonia, the figures are very different, with the majority (55%) undergoing abortions in the public health system, a percentage that is even higher if abortions performed in centers affiliated with the ICS are included.
The question is: how is it possible that forty years after the passage of the first abortion law, the one on assumptions, and fifteen years after the one on deadlines, there are still territories in Spain where the public system does not guarantee this right? The answer must be sought in the lack of enthusiasm, if not outright opposition, with which the various PP regional governments have implemented the law. Something similar is happening with the euthanasia law.
What is evident is that the PP has a problem with women's rights. And, as we said, this week's scandal involving mammograms and screening errors in Andalusia, which affects a still undetermined number of women but is increasing daily, has exposed a government, that of Juanma Moreno Bonilla, which until now boasted of excellence in management. It is true that there is often a great distance between propaganda and reality, but in the Andalusian case it seemed to be astronomical. Neither Moreno Bonilla nor anyone in his government has yet offered any comprehensible explanations for how these delays in communicating diagnoses occurred, which, in some cases, have even resulted in death.
The case, as has happened with the Mazón government and the dana, will end up in court, and perhaps criminal liability will have to be faced, because the negligence of the Andalusian Health System has broken the most valuable thing in democracy: citizens' trust in their institutions. And the first obligation of those in power is to guarantee the rights, but above all the lives, of their citizens.
