The Minister of Health, Mónica García, announced on Saturday that she will take the Government of the Community of Madrid, chaired by Isabel Díaz Ayuso, to court for refusing to create a register of doctors who are conscientious objectors to abortion, which is against the law. “Mrs Ayuso, in the purest style trumpeterdecided to declare itself a rebel against women’s right to abortion and hindered this right in a reactionary way. We are launching administrative litigation for this obstacle to the law, democracy and women,” García explained to the media.
The central government waited to make its decision until the last day of the deadline for the creation of the database by the Community of Madrid expired, which occurred this Friday at midnight. And he did it by force, despite the resistance of Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who believes that this register only serves to “persecute” doctors who refuse to perform abortions in public and private centers. Madrid was left alone in its rebellion after the Balearic Islands and Aragon, other communities also governed by the PP and which had shown their reluctance to register, finally decided to create it.
“In this country we follow the law,” García added. “Ms. Ayuso has decided to once again put herself on the wrong side of history. We support women’s freedom to choose about their bodies, their lives and their motherhood,” he continued. The minister believes that the president has taken a step to show herself “not subject to the law” and that, for this reason, “she will have to answer”.
Registration of conscientious objectors is mandatory for regions after the 2023 abortion law reform. The spirit of this database is that the decision of these anti-abortion health workers does not become an obstacle for women. Its aim is also to avoid discrimination against both objectors and non-objectors and, incidentally, to prevent the latter from dedicating themselves exclusively to this task. These data are not calculated at a national level, but the autonomies must take care of their functioning. Madrid, for the moment, will not do so.
The Ayuso government had made this clear since Friday. Health Minister Fátima Matute said she preferred the courts to have the final say and not “a sectarian government”. In the Community of Madrid we believe in legal, safe and infrequent abortion. We do not denounce and persecute those who have abortions or those who perform or do not perform abortions”, declared Matute. The Minister of Health acknowledged receipt and said that, before making a statement, he will wait for the deadline established by the government to expire.
This Saturday he did. García harshly criticized the Madrid president: “He goes against women. I don’t know what is happening to Ayuso with women and this crusade he has for them.” In October, the president of the government, Pedro Sánchez, sent her a letter asking her to respect the rule, the protocol of which was approved by the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System in December 2024. “I am writing to you with the intention of helping you overcome the obstacles that, unfortunately, continue to encounter in our country many women who decide to exercise their right to voluntary termination of pregnancy,” we read in the letter. If this requirement were not complied with, the letter reads, “the appropriate legal mechanisms would be activated to enforce compliance.”
That moment has arrived. It represents a new clash between Sánchez and Ayuso, between the Spanish government and that of Madrid, two leaders, two administrations, one from the PSOE and the other from the PP, who criticize each other almost daily. Now the word rests with the courts. This is not an isolated case. Ayuso also appealed to the Constitutional Court against the central government’s intention to place a plaque in the Real Casa de Correos, its headquarters, which recalls that during the Franco regime it was a place of detention and torture practices.
Ayuso not only declares his rebellion against Sánchez, but also snubs his party’s president, Alberto Núñez Feijóo. The main opposition leader tried to reach a consensus on a single position among the presidents of the regions governed by the PP, but failed. The comparison between Sánchez and Ayuso remains exclusively between the two of them.
