Feijóo copies Ayuso and announces a law of the 'unborn concept' if he is president

MadridIsabel Díaz Ayuso approved last week, thanks to the PP's absolute majority in the Assembly of Madrid, a controversial law on conceived but not born. The rule grants the status of family unit member to the embryo, so that, from the moment pregnancy is proven, families will be able to access maternity benefits without waiting for the birth. This is a measure that is part of in the cultural war against the progressivism of the Madrid president which, one year before the regional elections, is in full competition with Vox to prevent them from undermining this absolute majority. In fact, a few days after Juanma Moreno Bonilla had to give in to the far-right to be invested as president of Andalusia, Alberto Núñez Feijóo has announced that, if he is president of the Spanish government, he will follow Ayuso's steps and promote a state law for the conceived but not born.

"When a woman is expecting a child, I understand that it must be reflected in public sector aid," Feijóo argued this Monday in an interview on Antena 3. The PP leader emphasized that he already did so in Galicia in 2011, although Ayuso's law has taken the scope of this framework even further, which stems from an ultraconservative conception of life. In Galicia, in fact, Feijóo's initiative had been promoted by an anti-abortion association, Red Madre, linked to the Catholic network Foro Español de la Familia. The arguments that Ayuso presented in last week's Thursday debate in the Assembly of Madrid have reminiscences of those used against abortion, although the norm does not directly refer to the interruption of pregnancy.

"The unborn is a person from the first minute, and therefore has rights. Madrid is the first region to recognize this in its policies. In defense of life," summarized the Madrid president on X, who also maintains ties with ultra-Catholic and anti-abortion entities such as the Jaime Mayor Oreja Neos Foundation, which months ago expressed its support for this initiative by the PP of Madrid. It should be recalled that Ayuso "declared herself in rebellion against the obligation to create a registry of conscientious objectors to facilitate abortion in public healthcare and that her chief of staff, the controversial Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, defends these initiatives on X with the justification that "it is the revolution against the leftist "woke culture". In a message on this social network on the day the law was approved, Ayuso's right-hand man summarized the law of the "unborn child" as follows: "It means that, just when they have just fertilized it, before showering, what the woman has in her womb is a person with rights".

With a very different tone, at a press conference at the PP's national headquarters, the party's spokesperson, Borja Sémper, framed the proposal of the unborn child within a broader "support for families" law with other measures to encourage birth rates. However, sources from the Popular Party refuse to go into detail because the law is not yet designed. They have also not clarified from which week of gestation aid could be requested. In the case of Madrid, the regulation fixes it from week 14.

Criticism from the left

"In reality, this law questions women's rights to decide about their own bodies, which is a legacy of decades of the feminist movement's struggle, and which will not be at risk because the PP and Ayuso now want to wink at the far-right," warned the head of the opposition, the spokesperson for Més Madrid in the Assembly of Madrid, Manuela Bergerot, who promised to confront it on the day of the parliamentary debate. The Madrid left, moreover, has criticized Ayuso for promoting aid for the unborn when she "abandons children who are at 35 degrees in schools or have 140,000 children without a pediatrician," in reference to the lack of investment in public services for children already born. At the state level, Podem also criticized this Monday that Feijóo is "increasingly adopting more ultraconservative positions," and attributed it to "the fear that Ayuso could cut his throat," in the words of its spokesperson, Pablo Fernández.

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The abortion offensive

The Minister of Health, Mónica García, also criticized Feijóo for following Ayuso's "ultra agenda". Conceived but not born with rights that they lose if they are born into a family that the PP dislikes," she reiterated on X. In recent months, the Council of Ministers has responded to the statements and initiatives of the Madrid president, which questioned the right to abortion with an offensive that culminated in the proposal to reform the Constitution to "protect it". This is an initiative being processed in Congress that will not go anywhere because the PP's votes are necessary for it to be definitively approved.

The response from PSOE and Sumar has also generated reticence among some of Pedro Sánchez's investiture allies, who questioned whether the constitutional reform is an effective measure. According to these parties, it responds more to the "political opportunism" of the PSOE and they consider that the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court already provides a "solid" protection for abortion as a fundamental right. Parties like ERC warned at the time that a "surpassed debate" was being reopened, following the right and the far-right.