Spain will become the first European country to entitle workers to paid menstrual leave.
Lawmakers passed legislation that will also expand abortion rights for
teenagers and allow people over the age of 16 to change their legally
registered gender without medical supervision.
- The legislative package will also make period products freely available in schools and prisons.
- State
hospitals will now be required to perform abortions, and 16- and
17-year-olds will be able to undergo an abortion without parental
consent.
- State-run health centers will have to offer birth control medication and the morning-after pill.
- Another part of the bill will ban homophobic "conversion therapy" for LGBTQ people.
- The legislative package was spearheaded by Equality Minister Irene Montero of the left-wing Unidas Podemos party that governs as part of a coalition with the Spanish Socialist party.
