The measure, AFP reports, was proposed by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialist party and will come into effect after being published in the official state bulletin in coming days.

The move involved changes to the extant penal code – meaning anti-abortion activists who try and convince women not to terminate their pregnancies could face up to a year behind bars.

By this new law, anyone trying “to impede (a woman) from exercising her right to voluntarily interrupt pregnancy” through “bothersome, offensive, intimidating or threatening acts” will face jail time of between three and 12 months, or community service

In practice, the legislation criminalises protests outside of abortion clinics. The ban also applies to the harassment or intimidation of healthcare professionals working at abortion clinics.

Staunchly Catholic Spain decriminalised abortion in 1985 in cases of rape, if a foetus is malformed or if a birth poses a serious physical or psychological risk to the mother.

But the scope of the law was broadened in 2010 to allow abortion on demand in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy.

Even so, Spanish women still face obstacles, with “most” obstetrician-gynaecologists in the public sector refusing to carry out such procedures, the OMC doctors’ association has said.

It is said that women visiting private clinics are sometimes confronted by anti-abortion activists, who often try to persuade them not to end their pregnancies.

This comes after Spain became the first European country to record more than a million cases of the virus.  Last Friday, 19,851 cases were reported along with 231 deaths. Some 20,986 positive tests were also confirmed on Thursday.

Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez on Sunday afternoon said his cabinet had approved a state of emergency that is set to remain in force until 9 May 2021.

“The reality is that Europe and Spain are immersed in a second wave of the pandemic, we are living in an extreme situation…it is the most serious in the last half-century. We have to protect our economic and work activity and preserve, as far as we can, the rhythms of our lives. Sacrifices will be indispensable. No one, not the government of Spain nor its regional governments, wants to impose a single restriction that isn’t necessary to flatten the curve and protect public health,”
As of Sunday, Spain had recorded 1,046,132 coronavirus cases and 34,752 related deaths.

At a press conference on Saturday, May 23, Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez disclosed that he has instructed the country’s tourism industry to prepare for a summer season for tourists.

He said “We must begin to restart economic activity. Some of these sectors are hostelry and tourism, which have a fundamental role in the creation of employment. The moment has arrived. I’m announcing to you that there will be a tourist season this year and I invite all tourist establishments to start to prepare from today to restart their activity in a few days from now.”

Spain is also currently forcing foreigners into isolation for two weeks on arrival.