Only the third-ever reform to change the Spanish Constitution passed nearly unanimously in Congress. Spanish social groups have advocated for the use of different terms to refer to people with handicaps for 40 years to replace the “offensive” wording in the constitution.
On Thursday, the Spanish Congress met to discuss the elimination of a particular term from the Spanish Constitution. Article 49 of the Spanish Constitution, in vigor since 1978, uses the term “disminuidos” to refer to people who suffer from physical or mental handicaps.
The Spanish governmental press agency, BOE, translates this word in the Constitution as “handicapped.” However, etymologically, the word “disminuido” shares a Latin origin with the English word “diminished,” and is considered offensive by legal and advocacy groups serving disabled people in Spain.
The two principal rival parties in Spain, the People’s Party (PP) and the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), agreed to propose a change of this article, replacing the word with “personas con discapacidad.”
This term is translated into English by the United Nations as “people with a disability,” which are words recommended to use by the UN for inclusivity as “people-first language is the most widely accepted language for referring to persons with disabilities.”
The vote included more additions to Article 49, which as a whole passed with a substantial majority, marking the third time the Spanish Constitution will likely be altered.
Debate and reasons for the change
The bill easily passed through the Congress with 310 votes in favor. All of the 33 “No” votes belonged to the far-right party, Vox, whose speaker, Lourdes Mendez Monasterio, held that the changes did not go far enough, despite agreeing with the removal of the term “disminuidos.” Mendez Monasterio expressed that the changes did not repay the government’s debt to disabled persons, and that the addition of “gender ideology” could bring undue discrimination.
Mendez Monasterio’s latter comment refers to the extra provisions given to disabled women and children with the amendment, whose necessities are to be given “special attention,” as per the changes to make in Article 49. The change also comes not long after PSOE, the party in power in the Spanish government, implemented controversial abortion and euthanasia bills, that potentially involve disabled people.
Nonetheless, the change was welcomed with open arms by groups representing handicapped people in Spain, due specifically to the change of the term “disminuidos.”
CERMI, a national legal and social advocacy group for disabled people, began a campaign to motivate the parties’ proposal to remove the word “disminuidos,” which they called “hurtful terminology.” The Spanish NGO, COCEMFE, whose purpose is to include disabled people in society joined the campaign, requesting that the bill pass unanimously. Several other advocacy groups joined the campaign as well.
COCEMFE has also dissuaded the public from using the term “disabled” or “handicapped,” as the terminology should reflect that these terms refer to people, beyond just their physical or mental condition. This language is also in accordance with the European Union’s (EU) stance.
The “late arrival” of the Spanish government
The modification comes during a time of legislative actions involving disabled people. Prior to a law signed in 2020, it was legal to forcibly sterilize disabled people in Spain, a practice that remains legal in 13 EU countries (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal, and Slovakia), according to the European Parliament as of December 2023.
Additionally, a controversial euthanasia bill, passed in 2023, allows all people in Spain to ask for euthanasia legally if they are undergoing a serious illness. The bill outlines provisions that should be given to disabled people to assist in their decision-making autonomy.
An abortion bill in vigor since 2010, modified in 2023, also gave pregnant women to have an abortion if their child is to have “grave anomalies.” This legislation has been criticized as eugenics and unconstitutional, however, the Constitution Court denied this in a 2023 ruling, deciding that this law is concerned with anomalies in the child’s health, and not with disabilities.
President of Spain and PSOE, Pedro Sanchez, admitted that the government has arrived “late” with this change of a 46-year-old Constitution and that “changing a word will not change reality.” He added that there are “many other reforms” that people are waiting for, but defended the “visibility, inclusion and diversity” given by this amendment.
The Senate will vote on the issue before the constitution can be officially amended.
