Anti-Abortion Activists in Spain

Spain as we know is a conservative Catholic country. Yet in 1985 it decriminalized abortion in the case of rape, an abnormal fetus or harm to the physical or psychological health of the mother. In 2014  the law was widened to be abortion on demand for the first 14 weeks of pregnancy.  In practice the law worked mainly for doctors working in private clinics, those  working in public hospitals often refused to perform the procedure.  The legality of abortion didn’t of course stop anti-abortion activists, including right to life groups there. 89% of women seeking an abortion reported that they had felt harassed and 66% felt they had been threatened. Now Spain has criminalized harassment or intimidation of women seeking an abortion.  It means that anti-abortion activists who try to convince women not to have abortions could face up to a year in jail.  The law applies mainly to protests outside abortion clinics but also to the harassment or intimidation of the health care professionals who work there.  The legislation was proposed by the prime minister who now plans to go further, making sure that public hospitals are able to practice abortion and also go still further, making it possible for 16- and 17-year-olds  to have an abortion without parental consent, something that is possible in France and the UK.

Abortion is a divisive issue in the United States, and the example of deeply religious countries is instructive and encouraging. When abortion is legal in countries like Spain and Mexico, it suggests that somehow, down the road, however far down, the right and freedom to choose in the United States will have to prevail.

The Names of Both Parents

It is now a norm that women either keep their own names when they marry or hyphenate their own names with that of their spouse. And yet this norm does not yet apply to the children. But  the Constitutional  court in Italy is changing that. It just overturned the tradition that a child is only given the father’s name and ruled that they should be given that of both parents. It said that the current practice was detrimental to the identity of the child. In its statement however the court said that both parents need to make the decision. They can decide the order in which the names appear or even decide on only one name. The court’s decision though is only a beginning.  Parliament now needs to take it up and legislation needs to be passed in order to implement  it. But the Family minister is taking up the issue and said that it should be a high priority and an urgent tasks for politicians to be involved.

Italy’s constitutional court’s decision is a first. No one else has so openly decreed that a child ought to have both his parents surnames. While it does look like the parliament will indeed take it up, in a way it no longer matters what happens. It’s like putting toothpaste back in a tube. It’s surprising that it took so long for the issue to be officially raised and be declared a part of a child’s identity. It’s so logical. I don’t know which country will take it up next, but I do know that many parents have begun to give their children both surnames, or some combinations that acknowledges both sides. It may be that whether or not it is ever made into law anywhere will be secondary if not superfluous.

Help Walking Home

As is often the case a simple answer makes us go, Wow, why didn’t we think of this before. In this case it has to so with Strut Safe  a telephone service for young women walking alone at night. It was started by Alice Jackson and her friend  Rachel Chung after they had attended a vigil for a young woman killed while walking home. It is based in Edinburgh, but given  that the  dangers of young women walking alone at night applies to so many towns and cities in so many countries, the idea deserves airing. Perhaps  it will be copied and help others too. Sometimes the callers are out of breath because they have run or are scared, or even think they have heard someone following them. The trained volunteers reassure them, reminding them that they are right there with them and will be until they are safe at their destination. The callers are asked personal information, the kind that might be needed if there  was to be a problem, so that police or ambulance could find them, not only name, address and birth date but also what they are wearing so that they can be easily identified. And the calls last until callers reach  home or wherever. Right now the service which is funded through donations operates weekends only and is usually used by people walking home from a club, after having left a boyfriend, or going home from work. While the service has been publicized, most find the number through social media.

Although many young people may have cars, many don’t. Even in big cities where public transportation and services like Uber exist, services if they are in operation at night  can be very slow, pointing to the need for this idea  even if it is adapted to local conditions and local needs.

Activism and Immigrants

Because I’m an immigrant I know how hard it is to build a new life in another country. And because I was a legal immigrant, I’ve become sensitive to what it means to be undocumented, because  from what I’ve learned over the years, their hardships dwarf what mine were.  When I read in the Guardian Newspaper a story about illegal immigrants who turned to activism to help others who were undocumented,  I had to pay attention.  Their names are not famous, but their work  speaks to the resilience and courage of the human spirit. There are people like  Viri Hernandez and her mother Rita, Reyna Montoya and German Cadenas.  Cadenas, for example, came to  Maricopa County in Arizona  at 15 to visit his father at Christmas and escape the destabilization of Venezuela. When his visa ran out he opted to stay with his father and earn money to send back to his family. He was undocumented for 9 years. Now a citizen he is also a  professor of psychology at Lehigh University and has published quite a lot of  research on what it means to be an undocumented immigrant.  Actually several psychologists have documented the mental health issues of  people who are undocumented, the anxiety, depression, PTSD and feeling of  low-self-worth they experience. These issues stem from being discriminated against, hunted, detained and marginalized by the view people have of these immigrants. What Cadenas research  found, was that something he called critical consciousness, helps people cope with the traumas they have to live with. In plain English he means that when they turn to social activism, their pursuit of social justice and their work to help others  is what helps them cope with the hardships, and deal with the traumas.

Millions are living with these mental health issues and because of climate change and political upheavals the numbers are estimated to grow.  I hope that the work of people like Cadenas will help increase understanding of the issues migrants face, and that that understanding will make us all a bit more better humans.