In the end, after a long entanglement in the People’s Party due to Isabel Díaz Ayuso’s rebellion to comply with the registration of opponents of abortion, Genova ended up submitting to the position of President of the Community of Madrid. Ayuso has won the internal game, forcing the PP leadership to adjust its position and protect him, even though, in doing so, it acknowledges a regional president’s refusal to comply with state law. For more than a month, the PP has been internally tense over the issue, which has always been divisive for the PP, and finally, on Monday, Genova supported Ayuso in her decision to violate the legal provision that forces her to create a registry of doctors who object to abortion.
The person responsible for this role was the PP’s Deputy Finance Minister, Juan Bravo, who served as spokesperson on Monday at the press conference after the People’s Steering Committee meeting. Bravo wrote the response, which was very measured, and repeated it twice when reporters asked him about Ayuso’s legal rebellion.
The deputy minister granted protection to Ayuso, arguing that when there are “doubts” or “differences” about the application of the law, “you have to go to court.” “Laws are applied or amended. One of the things that must be done. And when there are doubts, the judicial process must be resolved,” Bravo defended, in line with the Madrid government, which emphasizes that it is the courts that force it to comply with the law and, if appropriate, create a registry of objectors. “Either the laws are amended or enforced,” Bravo later repeated, and asked again. “And when there are disagreements, you have to go to court to make that decision.”
The truth is that there is no doubt about the application of the law that restricts the creation of these records for objecting doctors. This is one of the requirements of the 2023 law, the protocol of which was approved by the Interregional Council of the National Health System in December 2024.
But in this somewhat roundabout way, Genova supports the Community of Madrid government’s refusal to comply with the register. Strictly speaking, it was not Ayuso either, but the Ministry of Health that brought the case to court, precisely because of the regional executive’s refusal to comply with legal provisions. “Go somewhere else to have an abortion!”, the Madrid leader even said at a monitoring session in the Madrid Assembly, when she was questioned by the opposition and accused of creating obstacles to the voluntary moratorium on abortion.
What is striking is the path taken by the Popular Party leadership to reach this point. Just over a month ago, at the beginning of October, Alberto Nunez Viejo was forced to issue a public statement in response to this controversy. Figo then distanced himself from his Madrid baroness – without citing her – by asserting that if he got into government, he would guarantee abortions “in accordance with the laws”, which implied compliance with the register of objectors. This was explained because Feijóo’s letter was published in the context of the controversy surrounding the registration of objectors.
But soon after, on October 13, Figo already showed signs of clarifying his position and moving closer to Ayuso’s position. In an interview on Antena 3, the PP leader defended the need to adhere to current legislation – which Ayuso decided not to do; This means that objector logs are created. But he immediately added that he aspires to amend the law to present a “counter-list” if he is sworn in as president after the next general elections. “What is important to a woman: knowing doctors who can help her or is she interested in knowing doctors who are not willing to treat her?” Feijóo said in that interview.
This idea went against what happens with any health service and with what the PP communities did with the exception of Madrid, which was the obligation to register. In fact, Ayuso’s anti-abortion challenge caused upset in the rest of the PP’s areas, which were following the law. “This leaves others up in the air,” they complained in Popular Party areas.
The question now is how the rest of the PP communities that complied with the register will judge the fact that the popular leadership ultimately ended up supporting the Madrid president’s refusal to comply with the law. Whatever the case, Ayuso wins.
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