Spain Considers Bill to Give Period Leave to Women With Menstrual Pain

MADRID — The Spanish government on Tuesday approved a draft law that would make Spain the first European country to grant women days off work because of menstrual pain, as well as extend access to abortion.

The new law would allow women to have their time off if they are diagnosed by a doctor with severe menstrual discomfort. The state would pay the cost. Among other measures to help women during their menstruation, Spain’s left-wing government also decided that schools should provide sanitary pads to students who request them.

The regulatory changes to assist women during menstruation are part of a broader legal overhaul that the Socialist-led government wants Parliament to approve with the goal of consolidating women’s right to abortion.

Draft law allows minors to have abortions. It does not require consent from a parent or guardian. It would also repeal a previous rule which required women to confirm their choice within three days of asking for an abortion.

Spain’s minister of equality, Irene Montero, who is pushing for the law, defended it as the necessary response to decades-long demands lodged by feminist associations, to enhance women’s health rights.

“This is a law that shows what Spain is and what is the feminist movement in Spain,” Ms. Montero said on the breakfast show of Spain’s national television broadcaster. “We will be the first country of Europe that talks about menstruation health as a health standard and we eliminate this stigma, shame and guilt, as well as this loneliness that women often have go through during their period.”

The government’s plan comes amid a longstanding ideological battle in Spain over abortion. Right-wing opposition parties, led by the Popular Party and with the backing of the Catholic Church, have appealed to the Constitutional Court to seek an annulment of Spain’s most recent abortion law, which was approved in 2010 under a previous Socialist government.

The 2010 law gave women 14 weeks to request an abortion. However, if there is a significant risk of fetal malformations, the deadline can be extended up to 22 weeks.

Some right-wing lawmakers have been grabbing onto a leaked document claiming that the Supreme Court of the United States would reverse the right to abortion in America. This is to support their claim that a similar legal U turn was required in Spain.

The United States debate was sparked by the publication this month, in draft, of a court opinion regarding Roe v. Wade. This ruling almost 50 years ago established the right for abortion in the United States.  

In Spain, abortion was decriminalized in 1985 by the first Socialist government that came into office after Spain’s return to democracy, but the issue has since remained a political hot potato, subject to legal changes each time a different administration has taken office.

A decade ago, a conservative government sought to push through legal changes that would have limited significantly the circumstances under which abortion was allowed. After mass street protests, the project was dropped, forcing the resignation of the justice minister who had pushed for it.

The draft law would guarantee access to abortion in public hospital in a country where many doctors refuse them. This would force women to travel to private clinics or to other locations. The draft law would require regional administrations to establish a registry of doctors who refuse an abortion.

The draft law focuses on dysmenorrhea. This is the severe pain women can experience during menstruation. It can make it difficult for them to work. The Spanish medical profession is divided on whether a specific law should be passed to treat menstrual problems.

“I really don’t understand why we need this new law when there are now so many options available for most women to avoid suffering the kind of debilitating pain that could make it impossible for them to work,” said Hortensia García Briz, a gynecologist in Madrid.

“I think that the feminist movement in this country has been pushing things to the extreme and out of context, which is not actually helpful to women,” she added. “I believe that the aim should be precisely to demystify a woman’s period as something that needs to be painful, and make it clear instead that gynecology has already designed many products to make it comfortable.”

Only a few countries worldwide — most of them in Asia — have approved laws that cater to women who suffer debilitating menstrual pain. Japan was the first country in 1947 to grant women menstrual leaves. However, usage has declined over the last decade due to social pressures to work and women not showing up for work.

It was in 2017 that the Italian Parliament rejected the idea of granting women menstrual leave.

Faride Ojeda, a gynecologist in a private hospital in Madrid, said that the only positive aspect of the government’s menstruation law was that it would guarantee women’s pay while on work leave, but “as a feminist as well as gynecologist, I don’t want a law that presents the period as an illness and might even convince more men not to employ more women and hence reduce further our opportunities in the workplace.”

Officials from Madrid said Tuesday that they hope the law will be in force by late next year, when Spain holds its next national elections. The law draft is still in its early stages and could face many amendments as it is reviewed by both houses.

Even before Tuesday’s presentation, the details of the draft law sparked tensions within the coalition government, including over its estimated cost. Ms. Montero was the equality minister but she failed to propose a way to remove the value-added taxes on the sale of sanitary pad and other related products.