The TC will rule this week that abortion is a woman's right enforceable to public administrations

And it will declare unconstitutional the agreements of the Parliament that ratified the exercise of self-determination

MADRID, 7 May. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Constitutional Court (TC) will hold a plenary session next week in which it will give final endorsement to the abortion law approved by the Government of José Luis Rodríguez-Zapatero, in a ruling that will recognize the voluntary interruption of pregnancy as a right of the woman with benefit content, while it will estimate the Citizens' appeal against the agreements of the Parliamentary Table of 2019 where it was ratified in the exercise of self-determination.

According to the agenda of the next plenary session, which will begin on May 9, the main issue will be the appeal presented by PP deputies in 2010 against the organic law on sexual and reproductive health and the voluntary interruption of pregnancy approved that same year, which meant the implementation of the deadline system establishing a limit of 22 weeks to be able to abort.

The legal sources consulted by Europa Press advance that the Plenary will validate the paper written by the progressive magistrate Inmaculada Montalbán, who will propose to dismiss the appeal of the PP with a sentence that will consecrate abortion as a woman's right.

However, the sources specify that it will not be configured as a new fundamental right, but framed in the right to personal integrity and, in this sense, in free self-determination, thus following the line marked by the Constitutional Court in its ruling on the law of euthanasia.

As with said ruling, it will also grant benefits to guarantee that the exercise of this right can be required of public administrations.

The sentence elaborated by Montalbán will suppose a novel approximation with respect to the previous draft, of the conservative magistrate Enrique Arnaldo, which pivoted on the rights of the unborn or 'nasciturus'.

In this regard, the sources clarify that the new paper does not deny the rights of the 'nasciturus' but does give greater importance to those of women, as well as their well-being.

Arnaldo's proposal went through supporting practically the entire law, except for article 17, considering that the way of informing the woman --by means of a sealed envelope-- does not sufficiently guarantee that she gives informed consent to the voluntary interruption of the pregnancy.

On February 9, the TC rejected said presentation and Arnaldo declined to write another that reflected the majority sentiment, for which the president of the TC, Cándido Conde-Pumpido, commissioned Montalbán to prepare "a new resolution that dismisses the appeal of unconstitutionality "of the PP.

The law approved in 2010 also eliminated parental consent in cases of abortions under 16 and 17 years of age, but that article was repealed in 2015 by the Executive of Mariano Rajoy, with which the "popular" resource would have lost its purpose in this spot.

For this reason, the new paper is silent on this matter, although the TC sees a future conflict on this same issue, since the new abortion law allows minors of that age to abort without the need for parental consent.

The sources consulted attribute this to the fact that the Constitutional Court has taken so long to respond to the PP's appeal -- specifically, 13 years -- that it has given time for the challenged law to be overcome by a new regulation.

In this plenary session, the court of guarantees also plans to declare unconstitutional the agreements of the Parliamentary Bureau adopted on July 24 and 25, 2019, by which the legislative seat was ratified in "defense of the exercise of the right to self-determination as an instrument of access to the sovereignty of the whole of the people of Catalonia".

The aforementioned sources assure that the court will uphold the appeal filed by Ciudadanos against said agreements, which went ahead with the support of JxCat, ERC, Comuns and CUP, and with the vote against PSC and PP. Cs, for his part, decided not to participate in the vote.

It will also reject the PP's appeal against the so-called 'Celaá law', applying the same criteria by which on April 18 it already dismissed that of Vox and validated the educational norm.

In addition, the Constitutional Court will study whether to admit the PP's appeal against the penal reform that repealed sedition and modified embezzlement, and that of Vox against the 'trans law'.

Likewise, it will analyze the admissibility of the resources of the Assembly of Madrid and the Government of Murcia against the tax on large fortunes, also challenged by the executives of Andalusia, Madrid and Galicia, whose resources were admitted for processing.