Women stage escrache on minister of justice over abortion law reform

Gallardón wants to make it illegal for women to terminate a pregnancy on the grounds of the foetus being deformed or likely to be born with a severe mental or physical handicap, and for girls under 18 to have to seek their parents' permission to have an abortion.

If the reform goes ahead, the only real basis for ending a pregnancy before term will be where the mother's life or health is in serious danger, and will need a doctor to confirm this in writing.

The 300 women who staged what they called a 'feminist escrache' said that as it was they who would have to give birth and to care for the child – possibly for the rest of its life if it were to be born with a serious handicap – they should be the ones to decide whether or not they wish to continue with the pregnancy.

They say the law reform would return Spain to 'the dark ages', with some of the most restrictive abortion legislation in the EU.

Around 12 National Police officers were on duty in preparation for the protest, and two women were arrested whilst another young man was led into a police van with his face bleeding after a confrontation between authorities and members of the public.

Similar demonstrations were carried out in the streets in other cities in Spain this week, including Valencia, Barcelona, Sevilla and Oviedo (Asturias, northern Spain).

In practice, abortion laws vary considerably throughout the EU.

Whilst in the UK, an abortion is legal merely for an unwanted pregnancy and girls of any age, however young, are not required to seek their parents' permission – in fact, medical workers are not allowed by law to disclose any aspects of a patient's health, even where he or she is a minor, to anyone else without written consent – in Poland, abortion is not legal even where a woman becomes pregnant after being raped.

In Britain, counselling is always given prior to and following an abortion and all the options are discussed, including adoption or fostering of the child, and minors are encouraged to tell their parents if this is deemed appropriate.

Many countries in Europe with less liberal abortion laws fear this could turn the right to terminate a pregnancy into another form of contraception and lead to carelessness on women's part in terms of protected sexual intercourse, with the solution being the death of a foetus.

Women who have had abortions, however, claim the emotional torment of doing so would preclude this from being anything other than a last resort in a desperate situation.

Under English and Welsh law, an abortion is illegal if there is a possibility the foetus may be born alive.

In Spain at the moment, abortion is legal where the mother's or the child's health or mental wellbeing would be in danger; where the pregnancy is the result of a rape, or where the child would be born with a disability, however severe, and girls aged 16 or over but under 18 do not have to seek their parents' consent.

However, doctors can block a request for an abortion if they feel there are sufficient grounds to do so – including a young woman in the province of Alicante who was denied a termination three years ago because it would be her fourth, and the medic considered she was using abortion as a form of emergency contraception.

In countries where abortion is practically illegal or very difficult to obtain, back-street abortion clinics and 'home termination' methods are rife, and potentially life-threatening.

But in more affluent EU countries where terminations are mostly illegal, women have been known to travel to other nations to do so, as was the case until recently with Irish women travelling to England or Wales.