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HEALTH

Coronavirus: Spain announces €3-billion universal basic income scheme

Spain has announced a minimum basic income scheme to help boost its coronavirus-hit economy.

Published: 23 May 2020 16:45 CEST
Coronavirus: Spain announces €3-billion universal basic income scheme
Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez. Photo: Andres BALLESTEROS / POOL / AFP

In a press conference on Saturday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said the government was committed to reducing poverty. 

The scheme will cost the Spanish economy €3 billion per year and is expected to help out almost a million struggling households across the nation. 

“It will cost around €3 billion per year, will help four out of five people in severe poverty and benefit close to 850,000 households, half of which include children,”

Sanchez said the Spanish government had a responsibility to help out those who had been hit hard by the crisis. 

“Neither the government nor Spanish society is going to look the other way while our compatriots queue up to eat, something we are sadly seeing now in some parts of the country.”

At the same press conference, Sanchez said tourists can again enter Spain from July – giving hope to the country’s shattered tourism industry. 

READ: Spain to reopen to foreign tourists from July

Sanchez also said the national football league – La Liga – would be able to return from June 8th onwards. 

 

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HEALTH

Danish parties agree to raise abortion limit to 18 weeks

Denmark's government has struck a deal with four other parties to raise the point in a pregnancy from which a foetus can be aborted from 12 weeks to 18 weeks, in the first big change to Danish abortion law in 50 years.

Published: 3 May 2024 08:06 CEST
Danish parties agree to raise abortion limit to 18 weeks

The government struck the deal with the Socialist Left Party, the Red Green Alliance, the Social Liberal Party and the Alternative party, last week with the formal announcement made on Monday  

“In terms of health, there is no evidence for the current week limit, nor is there anything to suggest that there will be significantly more or later abortions by moving the week limit,” Sophie Løhde, Denmark’s Minister of the Interior and Health, said in a press release announcing the deal.

The move follows the recommendations of Denmark’s Ethics Council, which in September 2023 proposed raising the term limit, pointing out that Denmark had one of the most restrictive abortion laws in Western Europe. 

READ ALSO: 

Under the deal, the seven parties, together with the Liberal Alliance and the Conservatives, have also entered into an agreement to replace the five regional abortion bodies with a new national abortion board, which will be based in Aarhus. 

From July 1st, 2025, this new board will be able to grant permission for abortions after the 18th week of pregnancy if there are special considerations to take into account. 

The parties have also agreed to grant 15-17-year-olds the right to have an abortion without parental consent or permission from the abortion board.

Marie Bjerre, Denmark’s minister for Digitalization and Equality, said in the press release that this followed logically from the age of sexual consent, which is 15 years old in Denmark. 

“Choosing whether to have an abortion is a difficult situation, and I hope that young women would get the support of their parents. But if there is disagreement, it must ultimately be the young woman’s own decision whether she wants to be a mother,” she said. 

The bill will be tabled in parliament over the coming year with the changes then coming into force on June 1st, 2025.

The right to free abortion was introduced in Denmark in 1973. 

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