Feijóo pledges national 'unborn child' law after Madrid approval, sparking abortion rights clash
The PP leader's announcement follows Madrid's recent approval of a law granting administrative benefits to the unborn, drawing sharp reactions from left-wing parties and women's rights advocates.
The Madrid law
The Madrid regional assembly approved the law less than a week ago with votes from the PP and Vox. It allows a pregnant woman to present a medical report issued within five working days, identifying the doctor, registration number, gestation week and due date, and then access benefits as if the unborn child were already born. These include school meal grants, youth rent subsidies, large family status, tax deductions and public transport discounts. The law does not always require a minimum gestation week for some benefits; in Madrid recognition applies from week 14, while Galicia has had a more limited regulation from week 21 since 2011, under Feijóo's presidency of the Xunta.
Feijóo's national promise
On Monday, PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo announced that if he becomes prime minister, he will implement a similar law at the national level. He said the unborn child should have "economic and social repercussions" for the expecting family. Madrid mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida praised the move, calling birth rates "dramatic" and noting that in 2025 Madrid saw more births than deaths for the first time.
It is very good news. I am convinced that Alberto Núñez Feijóo will govern and therefore this measure will be implemented.
Political backlash
The Catalan government spokesperson Sílvia Paneque accused the PP of a single line directed by Aznar and Ayuso, saying the law would "set back already acquired women's rights." Podemos MEP Irene Montero called it an attack on sexual and reproductive rights, and on social media wrote that Feijóo wants a "nazional law" for the unborn, adding that once born, the child would face privatized healthcare and housing insecurity. BNG leader Ana Pontón described the proposal as an "ultra and reactionary drift" and said the PP was questioning women's right to decide over their bodies.
It no longer seems there are two PPs, one more prudent and another closer to the far right. There is only one PP, directed by Aznar and Ayuso.
Feijóo wants to give what they call the 'unborn conceived' a nazional law. Once born, they privatize his healthcare, steal his education, evict him and make sure neither he nor his family can ever have a home.
FAES and the abortion debate
The FAES foundation, led by former prime minister José María Aznar, celebrated Feijóo's proposal and linked it to opposition to abortion. In a statement, FAES called abortion "a disgrace that can be decriminalized in certain cases and timeframes" and rejected its constitutional protection. The foundation argued that the legal system already recognizes rights of the unborn and that the left's reaction is "pharisaical."
Who can be attacked or offended by promoting birth rates, protecting motherhood, supporting couples who want to have children?
Underlying tensions
Critics warn that granting administrative rights to the unborn without requiring live birth sets a precedent that could undermine Spain's abortion law, which is based on gestational time limits. The Madrid law, and the proposed national version, do not condition benefits on the child being born alive, unlike existing civil law protections for the nasciturus. This, opponents say, chips away at the legal framework that has governed reproductive rights for decades.
