Spain’s Justice Minister Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon announced Tuesday he was resigning after failing to push through a controversial reform to limit women’s access to abortions.
“I have decided not only to leave the justice ministry but also to give up politics,” he told a news conference, hours after Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said the government had abandoned the reform.
Ruiz-Gallardon, 55, was the first of the current government’s ministers to be forced to quit since the conservative Popular Party took power in 2011.
Rajoy’s government has survived protests over corruption scandals, economic cutbacks and labour reforms, but the abortion reform proved too divisive.
As well as street demonstrations by both opponents and supporters of abortion reform, it sparked dissent within the ruling party itself.
After nearly three years of delays, Rajoy said on Tuesday he was dropping the most contentious parts of the proposed reform, which would have ended women’s right to freely opt for abortion up to 14 weeks into a pregnancy.
“We will continue studying ways to obtain greater acceptance of the reform, but I think I have taken the most sensible decision at this time,” Rajoy told reporters.
Ruiz-Gallardon left his post as mayor of Madrid to join Rajoy’s government in December 2011.
“I will not take up any more political posts,” he said on Tuesday, announcing the end to his 30-year career.