Many were shocked last week when a Spanish government official was caught on video saying that children can “have sexual relations with whoever they want.”
According to the blog CountingStars, that statement was made by far-left Minister of Equality Irene Montero during a heated exchange with the conservative lawmaker.
Minister says children “can love or have sexual relations with whoever they want”
The video is equipped with English subtitles, and they show Montero advocating for abortion as well as “consensual” sex between adults and those who are underage.
“All boys, girls, niñes [another unknown sex] in this country have the right to know their own body, to know that no adult can touch their body if they don’t want to and that this is a form of violence,” the government minister said.
She went on to add that such minors “have the right to know that they can love or have sexual relations with whoever they want.”
“Based, yes, on consent. And these are rights that they are recognized and that you don’t like them, nothing happens, admit it openly if you don’t like the rights,” Montero continued.
CountingStars noted that Article 181 of the Spanish Penal Code sets the age of consent at 16 and criminalizes sex with those who are below it.
That provision reads, “Whoever performs acts of a sexual nature with a minor under sixteen years of age, will be punished with a prison sentence of two to six years.”
New law removes parental notification for minors seeking abortion
Earlier in the video, Montero could be seen voicing support for a Spanish law passed earlier this year that removes the requirement that parents be notified when a girl who is over 16 obtains an abortion.
“The exercise of sexual and reproductive rights, not only the voluntary termination of pregnancy for it, that’s why it is, in its original version in 2010 and also this new abortion law is a law of sexual rights and reproductive rights,” Montero said.
“Not only to guarantee effective access to voluntary termination of pregnancy, but to talk about sex education, for example, which is a right of boys and girls, sir, regardless of who their families are,” she declared.