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Doubt Cast on Success of Spain's New Anti-Abortion Law

Doubt has been cast on the success of a bill being debated in Spain that would increase restriction to abortion access in the European nation.

The Spanish publication El Mundo has recently published an article noting that multiple sources within the current government see the proposed legislation as being tabled.

"There's no consensus within government around the bill," said one source in the Partido Popular government headed by Mariano Rajoy, adding that "if an agreement cannot be reached -which seems unlikely - the draft bill will be dropped."

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The bill in question has been the source of much controversy in Spain and its failure may damage the government, reported www.euroweeklynews.com.

"PP sources maintain that the general consensus within the party now is that the anti-abortion law was a mistake," noted the publication.

"If El Mundo is correct in its claim that the bill will soon be put to rest, Prime Minister Rajoy will now have to reflect on the damage that both the initial proposal and the subsequent u-turn have done to his party."

Last December, the right-leaning government approved a new law tightening the restrictions on the abortion procedure.

The bill would replace a 2010 law passed by Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, a member of Socialist Party.

Zapatero's law eased abortion restrictions, allowing for 16- and 17-year-olds to get abortion without parental consent and allowing the procedure for up to 14 weeks' pregnancy.

The 2010 abortion law enraged the Catholic Church, which saw the legislation as an attack on the traditional family unit.

In the 2011 election, the Socialists lost power to the Popular Party, a more conservative political party that presently holds a majority in Spain's parliament.

Previous predictions for the bill had it passing easily, despite most minority parties in Parliament expressing opposition to the anti-abortion law.

"These changes have more to do with politics and ideology than social realities today in Spain," Francisca García of the Asociación de Clínicas Acreditadas para la Interrupción del Embarazo, the umbrella group that representing 98 percent of the country's abortion clinics, told The Guardian last year.

"From all the data we've seen, the number of abortions in Spain is actually on the decline … The People's party is trying to satisfy the rightwing factions of its party."

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