Spanish Supreme Court orders the unblocking of a website that provided information on sexual and reproductive rights

Spain, Octo­ber 06, 2022 – The Supreme Court of Spain has orde­red the partial unbloc­king of the website of the inter­na­ti­o­nal orga­ni­za­tion Women on Web, which offers infor­ma­tion on sexual and repro­duc­tive rights and access to safe abor­tion via online servi­ces. The website was comple­tely bloc­ked in 2020 by order of the Spanish Agency of Medi­ci­nes and Health Products (AEMPS), part of the Ministry of Health, without a prior court order autho­ri­zing it.

The deci­sion comes in the frame­work of the legal proce­e­dings initi­a­ted in 2021 by Women’s Link World­wide, on behalf of Women on Web, to defend the right to infor­ma­tion on the inter­net about sexual and repro­duc­tive rights, espe­ci­ally about safe abor­tion. In the judg­ment, the Court recog­ni­zes that the complete bloc­king of the website without judi­cial autho­ri­za­tion should not have happe­ned and was a dispro­por­ti­o­nate measure. 

The Supreme Court consi­ders that the infor­ma­tion, recom­men­da­ti­ons, and opini­ons on sexual health and repro­duc­tive rights that Women on Web provi­des on its website are protec­ted by the right to infor­ma­tion and free­dom of expres­sion. There­fore, accor­ding to the Spanish Cons­ti­tu­tion, its website cannot be bloc­ked without judi­cial autho­ri­za­tion. The deci­sion crea­tes an impor­tant judi­cial prece­dent in terms of the right to infor­ma­tion and free­dom of expres­sion on the inter­net, since, for the first time, it esta­blis­hes that judi­cial autho­ri­za­tion will always be manda­tory when bloc­king infor­ma­tion publis­hed on the inter­net. 

More­o­ver, the Supreme Court goes further and reaf­firms the impor­tance of the orga­ni­za­ti­ons that promote repro­duc­tive rights, adding that they carry out an acti­vity that has a poli­ti­cal dimen­sion in contem­po­rary soci­ety.

The right to infor­ma­tion is funda­men­tal for women and people with gesta­ti­o­nal capa­city to access sexual and repro­duc­tive rights, espe­ci­ally for those who are in a situ­a­tion of grea­ter vulne­ra­bi­lity (women living in poverty and/or violence, living far from clinics or migrants in an irre­gu­lar situ­a­tion). The orga­ni­za­ti­ons denounce that many women conti­nue to face obsta­cles in acces­sing abor­tion in Spain and around the world. For these indi­vi­du­als, being able to consult infor­ma­tion on the Inter­net about how to access safe abor­tion is essen­tial.

«We are plea­sed that the Spanish state has resto­red access to our website. Disin­for­ma­tion is spre­a­ding rapidly on the inter­net and digi­tal plat­forms, endan­ge­ring abor­tion access, ” says Venny Ala-Siurua, Execu­tive Direc­tor of Women on Web. “It is there­fore extre­mely impor­tant that we protect access to evidence-based and easy-to-read infor­ma­tion about abor­tion and sexual and repro­duc­tive health».

«The websi­tes and social networks of orga­ni­za­ti­ons that are experts in sexual and repro­duc­tive rights must be protec­ted because they fulfill an essen­tial func­tion: to provide reli­a­ble infor­ma­tion so that those who need an abor­tion do not resort to unsafe methods, » explains Aint­zane Márquez, Senior Attor­ney at Women’s Link World­wide.

More infor­ma­tion

• • Ruling of the Supreme Court of Spain: https://bit.ly/3CzOVPQ
  • Testi­mo­ni­als from women who contact Women on Web from Spain: https://bit.ly/2M5K­vIC

Press contact

Laura Martí­nez Valero

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