Spain abortion bill clears hurdle

MADRID, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- A bill that would make it easier to get an abortion in Spain passed a parliamentary hurdle Thursday.

CNN said Socialist members of Parliament garnered enough support for the abortion bill to vote down a series of amendments that would have doomed the measure.

The bill would permit abortions through 14 weeks of pregnancy and allow 16-year-old girls to get abortions without permission from their parents.

To help win support for the bill, Equality Minister Bibiana Aido told members of Parliament the government was prepared to negotiate the teenage abortion proposal, which has drawn opposition.

Hundreds of thousands of abortion opponents marched in Madrid last month to protest the effort to make Spain's law on abortion less restrictive, organizers said.

The bill now goes to committee.