By Steve Kingstone
BBC News, Madrid
**Thousands of people are expected to march through the Spanish capital Madrid to oppose government plans to liberalise the country’s abortion law.**Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero wants to introduce abortion on demand.
At present, a pregnancy can only be terminated in Spain under specific circumstances.
It is the latest in a series of ethical issues which have pitted the Socialist cabinet against Spain’s Catholic right.
‘Rights and respect’
Saturday’s march is called Every Life Matters, and the organisers expect hundreds of thousands of people from all over Spain to take part.
The demonstration will bring together more than 40 religious and civil society groups.
They are demanding that the government withdraw the draft law currently in the parliament, which would introduce abortion on demand within the first 14 weeks of a pregnancy.
It would also permit girls aged 16 and 17 to have an abortion without their parents’ knowledge.
Spain’s existing law, dating from 1985, allows abortion in cases of rape, and when there are signs of foetal abnormality.
Spanish women can also end a pregnancy if their physical or psychological health is at risk. In practice, the last category has been used to justify the vast majority of abortions - of which there were 112,000 in 2007.
This is the latest ethical flashpoint between the Catholic right and a Socialist government, which has legalised gay marriage and made divorce easier.
The government says the new law is about respect and rights for women, and that anyone wanting to terminate a pregnancy will first be explained the alternatives - including state help for young mothers.
It also claims its proposal will make abortion safer - by ensuring the procedure does not happen beyond 22 weeks of a pregnancy.
In recent years shocking cases have emerged in which doctors performed abortions on women eight months pregnant, with the justification that their mental health was under threat.