Spain’s opposition leader just announced that he would implement Madrid’s new ‘unborn baby’ law if he becomes Prime Minister. But what is it?
The Madrid regional assembly recently passed a law that recognises unborn babies as members of the family when applying for benefits or seeking recognition by the state as a large family.
The law, spearheaded by regional President Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has also been picked up as a policy by her party, the Partido Popular (PP), at the national level.
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The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, announced on Monday that, if he comes to power, he will pass a national law to provide similar support for unborn children modelled on that of Ayuso’s government in Madrid.
With the polls suggesting that the PP would likely win the next general election – thought by most political pundits in Spain to be sometime in 2027 – it will almost certainly be reliant on far-right Vox to govern, something that makes the policy being adopted nationally in the near future more likely.
“When a woman is expecting a child, this must be reflected in public sector support,” Feijóo said recently in an interview on Antena 3. “I will introduce a national law to ensure that the conceived and unborn child is taken into account by the family awaiting their arrival,” he added.
In fact, Feijóo claimed that he had already overseen a similar measure in Galicia in 2011 when he was president of the Xunta and that, should he become Prime Minister, he would implement the measure at a national level.
But what does it actually do?
What is Madrid’s new unborn baby law?
According to a statement from the Madrid regional government website, in approving the law it has become “the first region in Spain to grant the unborn child the status of a member of the family unit as a general rule”.
Put simply, this means that pregnancies, that is, unborn babies, will now be counted as children when it comes to accessing and calculating state aid in the region.
In other words, from the moment a woman becomes pregnant she will be considered to already have a child and will be treated as such when applying for any assistance or state benefit provided by the Community of Madrid.
As per the statement: “within the scope of the regional government’s powers, this new legislation will apply from the moment pregnancy is confirmed.”
“Consequently, families will have the same benefits and rights when it comes to grants awarded on the basis of the family unit’s income; these include grants for high school education, for the first stage of early years education in private schools, school meal subsidies, travel passes and the youth rent subsidy.”
“Furthermore, families with two children expecting a third will be eligible for large family status from the 14th week of pregnancy; this provision will come into force six months after the regulation is published,” it adds.
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Supporters say the policy is a means to combat declining birth rates and better financially support families.
Critics of the measure, however, including leftist group Más Madrid, have said Ayuso’s right-wing government is more concerned about “the rights of the conceived but not born”.
Socialist members in the regional assembly have argued the move is a “purely ideological” bid to try and align with far-right Vox in keeping with its ‘national priority policy’ and anti-abortion positions.
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