When is a football banner not just a football banner? When it’s a political protest by a bunch of Spanish women who are trying to make a stand against scary new anti-abortion laws that look like they’re about to be passed.
Next week, the Spanish Parliament is meeting to discuss a draft law that will dramatically curtail the rights of Spanish women to an abortion. (And when we say curtail, what we really mean is it will take them away completely).
Currently, Spain can freely opt for an abortion until 14 weeks. If the proposed law goes through abortions in Spain will only be carried out in cases of rape, or there is a grave risk to the physical or mental health of the woman, and only up until 14 weeks. Abortion in the case of fetal malformations would no longer be allowed, unless the baby’s life was at risk.
Understandably Spanish feminists (and a hefty number of non-feminists too, for that matter, including some members of the Prime Minister’s own party) have been getting angry about the law change, and last week a group of protesters found a new way to bring it to our attention – with this banner at a football matchbetween Spanish teams Rayo Vallecano and Villarreal in Madrid, on Monday night.
For those of you without a shortcut to Google translate to hand, it contains a very eloquent message to Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and his centre-right government: 'Our ovaries, our decision.'
‘It shows that we’re fed up,’ Carolina Garcia, a member of Nosotras Decidimo, the campaign group behind the protests, told The Debrief today. ‘After the economic crisis and the social backlash, this feels like the breaking point. Women in Spain have had enough, because we don’t think a judge, doctor, or a politician can decide for us.’
Carolina says Spanish women are deliberately targeting male-centric spheres – hence the football match. 'We are choosing somewhere where men would be in the majority. Something has changed in Spanish society, our men support us in the fight. The other day when the new law was announced we did a little demonstration in front of the ministry of justice, of about 5000 people, and a lot of them were men, and that’s a good thing,' she said. 'We’re not just fighting for our rights as women, but we’re fighting for our rights as a society.'
The movement has also spread on social media – with the deliberately provocative hashtag #nomorehangers providing a focal point for people’s protests both within Spain and internationally.
If you want to register your protest/rage too, then this online petition is a great way to start. (The website is in Spanish, but this is a far better use of your flatmate’s Spanish degree than translating emails for you from that dodgy bloke you met in Ibiza).
Pictures: Getty, Twitter/@bukaneros82
Follow Rebecca on Twitter @Rebecca_Hol
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.