The Constitutional Court has begun to debate this Tuesday in an ordinary plenary session the appeal presented in 2010 by the Popular Party against the abortion law approved by the Government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. A conclave that is previously marked by the ‘contamination’ of four of the eleven magistrates, who in some way ruled in the past on this legal regulation in their positions at the time.
Everything indicates that the possible abstentions or challenges of President Cándido Conde-Pumpido (State Attorney General in 2010), and of magistrates Juan Carlos Campo (Secretary of State for Justice at the time), Inmaculada Montalbán and Concepción Espejel (both members of the Council General of the Judiciary) will not take effect. First, because a recent resolution of the Constitutional Court already dealt with this matter and settled that having ruled tangentially in the past on a contested law is not sufficient reason to depart because the “plurality” of the body prevails. Secondly, because if it were to do so, the plenary would be left with seven components and the minimum quorum required by law to hold it is eight.
Having saved this obstacle, the intention is to advance in the substantive debate and endorse practically the entire 2010 deadline law, whose proposal corresponds to magistrate Enrique Arnaldo, appointed precisely by the Popular Parliamentary Group in the partial renewal of autumn 2021.
The appeal of the party then led by Mariano Rajoy, which despite the absolute majority of its first legislature (2011-2015) and the electoral promises did not touch the deadlines of the socialist norm – which led to the resignation of Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón as minister of Justice -, challenged nine articles of the law, including the one that establishes free abortion in the first 14 weeks of gestation as long as the pregnant woman has been informed of the rights and public aid to support maternity.
To make things even more paradoxical, the plenary session of the TC will see the presentation while the Cortes Generales take the last step to approve the current abortion reform promoted by United We Can. The new norm of the Ministry of Equality will revert the slight tweak that the PP made alone in 2015: that pregnant women aged 16 and 17 need parental permission to be able to terminate the pregnancy and also the three days of reflection before ratifying the intention of abort.
Therapeutic abortion and conscientious objection
In addition, Arnaldo’s presentation focuses on two issues that he considers constitutional as long as they are interpreted as proposed. It is about therapeutic abortion, to limit that the concept of health only refers to physical or mental health; and the conscientious objection of health professionals, so that it covers all those involved in the actions before or after the intervention.
However, the basis for an agreement between the blocks of the TC (conservative and progressive) seems closer if the issue of parental consent in cases of abortions under 16 and 17 years is not entered. The reason is that, although it was one of the contested precepts, the Government of Mariano Rajoy repealed it in 2015, with which the appeal of his party would have lost its purpose on this point.
In any case, the now progressive majority of the TC (seven magistrates compared to four) is in favor of endorsing the abortion law in its entirety. And in the event that they do not accept Arnaldo’s text, a change of speaker could take place or that this magistrate modify his draft to what was stated by the plenary session or directly resign from the presentation. President Conde-Pumpido could also withdraw him from the matter to entrust it to another comrade.
In addition, the plenary session will study other issues in which challenges have been launched against various magistrates, especially against Campo, who in most cases has chosen to abstain, either because of his previous position as Minister of Justice, or because they are challenges. directed against the president of the Congress of Deputies, Meritxell Batet, her sentimental partner.
Likewise, the guarantee court will decide whether to admit Vox’s appeals against the Democratic Memory Law and the Law for the recognition of legal personality of the Mar Menor and its basin.