At one of the IESF’s periodic researcher-training seminars, Blanco analysed current legislation in Spain on motherhood, the family and questions of life, as well as political actions that he believed could influence these issues.

Blanco expressed his criticism with the Spanish abortion act as it stands today. “In the end we’re telling women: If you get an abortion, I, the State, will pay for it, but if you decide to be a mother, well then, that’s your problem, so don’t go counting on any kind of public support”, he said. “With laws like that”, he continued, “it’s not easy making pro-life policies”.

Blanco was most vocal on the dissemination of what he called the gender ideology. “If you look at the 2010 abortion act’s first 11 articles”, he said, “you’ll see that it funds extracurricular activities that indoctrinate children and teenagers in this ideology”.

Taking a more positive and constructive tone, Blanco said, “We can all help defend life and motherhood, especially if we urge our public officials to do the same”. He gave the example of the NGO RedMadre, of which he is Vice President. “According to our data, 80% of the girls that our NGO helps out choose life”, he said. “That means that if we would just stop leaving these pregnant girls to fend for themselves, we could keep the abortion rate down.”

The topics of the talks given at the IESF’s research group seminars are drawn in part from of the Santander IsFamily Chair’s main lines of research (healthcare, economics and education in the context of intergenerational family relationships) and from the goals of the Observatory on Family Policies and the Joaquim Molins Figueras family policy programme, which are more focused on public policy development and advocacy.