New clinical committee of the Materno Infantil for the termination of pregnancy

The Management Directorate of the Complejo Hospitalario Universitario Insular-Materno Infantil has appointed the specialists who make up the clinical committee responsible for confirming exceptional cases of voluntary termination of pregnancy, following the cessation of duties among the members appointed by the previous order. The decision was adopted by the center’s managing director, José Javier Blanco López, through a resolution signed in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria on October 7, 2026, and published in the Boletín Oficial de Canarias no. 214, of October 26, 2026, in section III (Other Resolutions), starting on page 38595.

The legal framework of an exceptional ruling

The committee acts under article 15.c) of Organic Law 2/2010, of March 3, on sexual and reproductive health and the voluntary termination of pregnancy, as amended by Organic Law 1/2023, of February 28. This exceptional route is activated when an extremely serious and incurable disease is detected in the fetus at the time of diagnosis, a circumstance that must be confirmed by a clinical committee.

Article 16 of the same regulation establishes the composition of the body: a multidisciplinary team with two members of the medical staff specializing in gynecology and obstetrics or experts in prenatal diagnosis and one pediatrician, with the woman being able to choose one of these specialists. The law prohibits anyone listed in the Registry of objectors to voluntary termination of pregnancy, or who has been listed in the last three years, from being part of the committee, and requires that appointments be published in the official gazette of the autonomous community.

In the Canarian region, the Order of the Ministry of Health of June 30, 2010 (BOC no. 130, of July 5, 2010) created the clinical committees of the Complejo Hospitalario Universitario Insular-Materno Infantil, the Hospital Universitario Nuestra Señora de Candelaria, and the Hospital Universitario de Canarias, and delegated the appointment of their members to the Management Directorate of each hospital, for a duration of one year without prejudice to extensions. Royal Decree 825/2010, of June 25, regulates the nature, composition, and functioning of these bodies and mandates the publication of both the titular members and at least one substitute for each.

Two gynecologists and one pediatrician as titular members

The resolution appoints the following specialists from the Gran Canaria hospital complex:

• Specialists in Gynecology and Obstetrics, titular: Alicia Inmaculada Martín Martínez and Raquel García Rodríguez.
• Specialists in Gynecology and Obstetrics, substitutes: Manuel Cazorla Betancor and Javier Segura González.
• Specialist in Pediatrics, titular: Sade Pérez López.
• Specialist in Pediatrics, substitute: Ana María de Nicolás Carro.

The designation adheres to the model of three permanent members and three alternates provided for in state and regional regulations, ensuring that the committee maintains its capacity to issue an opinion even if some of its members are unable to intervene.

Previous cessations and common criteria for the provision

The third background point of the resolution justifies the appointment based on “different causes of cessation” among the members designated by the 2010 order, which necessitates filling the vacancies in accordance with Article 16.1 of Organic Law 2/2010. The coverage is completed by Instruction No. 12/2025, from the director of the Canary Health Service, which establishes the common criteria so that the provision of voluntary termination of pregnancy is carried out uniformly across the islands and nullifies Instruction No. 11/2023, of June 20.

Two avenues of appeal and deadlines

The resolution exhausts the administrative route, therefore the following options are available:

• Contentious-administrative appeal within two months from the day following its publication, before the territorially competent contentious-administrative courts.
• Optional appeal for reversal within one month before the Direction of the Canary Health Service; in this case, the judicial route cannot be pursued until an express resolution is issued or a presumed dismissal occurs.

The renewal of the clinical committee guarantees the continuity of a body upon which patients in Gran Canaria facing a fetal diagnosis of an extremely serious and incurable disease depend, and whose intervention is a legal requirement to access the provision in that scenario. With the appointment of permanent members and alternates, the Insular-Materno Infantil University Hospital Complex prevents the vacancy of any of its members from paralyzing the issuance of the opinion.

Source: Official Gazette of the Canary Islands, no. 214, of October 26, 2026, section III (Other Resolutions), pp. 38595-38597 (official reference: resolution no. 3685).