The Andalusian Mediator urged the Council to adopt measures to guarantee access to voluntary termination of pregnancy (IVV) in the province of Jaén in “equity and equality” and “consistent with the guarantee of accessibility” established by law.
In addition, it asks to “regularly provide compensation for travel, accommodation and maintenance costs for pregnant women who must travel abroad” while “the advantage is not possible under conditions of equality” compared to the other Andalusian provinces.
These are the two recommendations that the Mediator establishes in his resolution before the Management Directorate of the Andalusian Health Service (SAS) recently published and consulted by Europa Press. This is the result of the processing of the file resulting from the complaint filed in November 2021 by the Jaén feminist movement.
The group explained that, unlike the rest of Andalusia, in Jaén the provision of IVI was not offered either in health centers in the public network, nor through an agreement made by a private entity.
For this reason, women residing in the province must go to private clinics outside said territory and assume travel expenses and, where applicable, spend the night according to their own financial means, in addition to advancing the cost of medical intervention, see you later. request reimbursement by the established means.
In March 2022, the Ombudsman received a response from Territorial Delegation of Health and Consumption in Jaén. Among other issues, reference was made to a report from the legal council of the SAS of the province which concluded that the service was “guaranteed, even if in Jaén the IVE is not provided in the centers integrated into its provincial network of care, nor in linked centers”. private centers.” to the SAS by any legal instrument, because this type of center does not exist”, due to the lack of accreditation “for not meeting the minimum requirements” provided for by the regulations.
Secondly, it judged “negatively” whether the reimbursement, by the Andalusian Health Service, of expenses incurred by abortion seekers residing in the province of Jaén to travel to another province to access treatment is an appropriate benefit . The aforementioned consulting firm defended that “the SAS complies with the guarantee of health expenses derived from the attention paid to the IVE care process.”
Subsequently, in November 2023, Jaén University Hospital has integrated voluntary termination of pregnancy into its portfolio of services. However, as the group mentioned above has denounced publicly and is stated in the resolution, those that are practiced are “only by medical prescription”, so women from Jaén must continue traveling to other provinces in the event of abortion by personal decision. , in the first 14 weeks of gestation provided for by legislation.
In this context, and taking into account the time that has passed since the complaint was filed “without apparently having adopted measures to guarantee the right to IVE in accordance with the provisions of Organic Law 2/2010, in the province de Jaén”, the The Ombudsman formulates several considerations based on various declarations of the Constitutional Court.
One of them analyzed the case of a woman who had to travel from the Region of Murcia to a private center in the Community of Madrid for the termination of your pregnancy. The TC concluded that this referral “without having invoked any exceptional reason” to justify it “infringed the applicant’s right to terminate her pregnancy, which is part of her fundamental right to physical and moral integrity”.
Recommendations
For the Ombudsman, although the hypothesis “is not the same as that mentioned here”, since it involves a move within the same community, “the compulsory transfer to other provinces” from Jaén “may result in, in addition to the logical disadvantages, difficulties for women with limited economic resources or in situations of physical and emotional vulnerability, which affect their own right to practice IVE in conditions of equality” with the rest of Andalusia.
“In this order of things, the development of Sexual and Reproductive Health Strategy of Andalusia, “which, we understand, could consider stable measures in this area, has remained pending for several years,” he adds.
Thus, it formulates a resolution with two recommendations, starting with “the adoption of measures to guarantee access to voluntary termination of pregnancy in the province of Jaén, in accordance with the principles of equity and equality, and in consistency with the guarantee of accessibility included in article 23 of Law 16/2003 of May 28 on the cohesion and quality of the national health system and in Organic Law 2/2010 of March 3 on sexual and reproductive health and voluntary termination of pregnancy.
Furthermore, “as long as it is not possible to provide the IVI in Jaén under conditions of equality with the exercise of the right in the other Andalusian provinces”, he proposes to “regularly provide for compensation of costs travel, accommodation and maintenance of pregnant women. women who “have to move outside the province.”
