This was partly a result of Hispanic Eugenics that drew on Catholicism and opposed abortion, euthanasia and contraception while trying to create an ideologically aligned population from birth.
Despite the Government welcoming the drop in the number of single mothers, they noted in 1975 that this was a result of more women using birth control and seeking abortions abroad.
Nevertheless voluntary sterilization remained a crime in Spain and centers for family planning required women be married to use their services.
[1] Doctors in Francoist Spain had two roles: to be moral protectors of Spanish reproduction and to provide science-based medical services.
Further attempts to dislodge midwives from the birthing process included accusing them of witchcraft and quackery, trying to make them appear unscientific.
Alongside condemning abortion, the Pope condemned birth control: “Similarly excluded is any action which either before, at the moment of, or after sexual intercourse, is specifically intended to prevent procreation – whether as any end or as a means [...] always unlawful the use of means which directly prevent contraception”.
[10] Prohibitions against the sale of contraception in Andalusia in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s were largely ineffective as women had various means to try to limit the number of children.
This was especially true for women engaging in sex outside of marriage at a time when that practice, along with having children when single, were highly condemned by the government.
[7][12] It was first sold on the commercial market in the country in 1964, where Anovial 21 de Productos Quimicos Schering was also heavily advertised.
Many married women found it difficult to get prescriptions from their doctors, having only more marginal luck when they sought out private practitioners.
The pediatrics specialist was a member of the Communist Party of Spain and promoter of the Democratic Movement of Women in Murcia.
[10] In contrast, in 1974, 51% of the doctors said in a survey that they considered the existence of free birth control consultations to be something they would like to see offered by the Government.
In their reports, single motherhood was identified as a problem, though they noted it was in decline which they attributed in part to the use of the pill and other contraceptives, and to women having abortions in other countries where the practice was legal.
[19] At the time of Franco's death in November 1975, almost all the laws related to female sexuality were still intact, including prohibitions on the use of contraceptives.
[20] The first organization created about women's reproductive health and birth control was opened in Madrid in 1976 by Federico Rubio.
"[12] In 1977, Juan Luis Cebrián was charged with disclosing information about contraceptive use in an article he wrote in the newspaper Sunday Times as part of a series by British doctors.
[4] By April 1978, the issue of decriminalizing contraception was being debated in the Spanish Cortes, a new national legislative body with only 21 women.
Communist María Dolores Calvet pointed out during the debate that contraception legalization was one of the issues agreed upon as part of the Moncloa Pacts.
PSOE rallied the left, managing to prevent by a single vote, the ability for the Government to make decrees that would limit contraceptive advertising.
Catalan Communist José Solé Barberá compared the Government's lack of willingness to fully decriminalize contraceptives as akin to the policies of Hitler, Stalin and Franco.
[21][22] The Cortes Generales formally decriminalized the sale and use of contraceptives, as well as allowing disclosure of information about their use on 7 October 1978.
[12] Despite the legalization of contraception in 1978, voluntary sterilization remained a crime in Spain, with doctors punishable by prison terms for performing such procedures.
[12] At the same time that contraception was decriminalized, the Government announced it would create 74 centers for the orientation of families to attend to married couples.