Bills creating a criminal offence for so-called conversion therapies
File 122/000201 · 122/000167 · tabled on 6 June 2025
Lapsed bill
This bill lapsed on 6 October 2026 when Parliament was dissolved; it would have to be reintroduced in the new legislature. Parliament was dissolved by Royal Decree 806/2026 of 5 October (Official State Gazette of 6 October), and on dissolution all business pending before the Chambers lapses. It is not law: we keep the text as tabled for reference, alongside the text in force, which is the one that applies.
What it proposes
To create a specific offence for practices aimed at changing, suppressing or denying a person’s sexual orientation, sexual identity or gender expression. Two parallel bills propose different solutions: file 122/000201 would insert section 173 bis of the Criminal Code and file 122/000167 a section 175 bis. Both lapsed on 6 October 2026 when Parliament was dissolved: file 122/000201 while it was before the Senate, and file 122/000167 while it was still awaiting the plenary vote on whether to take it into consideration.
Parliamentary stage
- Status
- No longer before Parliament (lapsed or withdrawn)
- Checked on
- File number
- 122/000201 · 122/000167
The status shown is the one recorded in the Congress open data on the date indicated. A lapsed bill is not law: the text in force set out below applies.
What would change, section by section
On the left, the text in force checked against the consolidated version; on the right, what the tabled text says.
Art. 173 bis CP (nuevo, expediente 122/000201)
Text in force
It does not exist. Such conduct is currently prosecuted, depending on the facts, as an offence against moral integrity under section 173.1 or as the injuries or coercion involved.
Text as tabled
Six months to two years’ imprisonment for anyone applying aversion or conversion methods —psychological, physical, pharmacological or otherwise— that affect bodily integrity or health or seriously harm moral integrity. The upper half applies where the victim is a minor, where violence, intimidation, deceit or abuse of a position of superiority is used, where the offender belongs to an organisation devoted to it, or where there is a profit motive. The same penalties reach parents, guardians or carers who consent to or facilitate it, with possible disqualification from parental authority for up to five years; disqualification from teaching-related work, and a six-month to two-year fine for a liable legal person.
Art. 510.5 CP (expediente 122/000201)
Text in force
Subsection 5 imposes, in hate-crime cases, disqualification from teaching, sports and leisure work.
Text as tabled
The subsection would be rewritten so that the disqualification lasts between three and five years longer than the custodial sentence imposed, having regard to gravity and the number of offences.
Art. 175 bis CP (nuevo, expediente 122/000167)
Text in force
It does not exist. Section 175 currently punishes attacks on moral integrity committed by a public authority or official.
Text as tabled
One to four years’ imprisonment and an eight to twenty-four month fine for anyone practising such therapies, referring someone for them, forcing a person to undergo them or allowing them in a setting under their supervision; a higher penalty band where the victim is a minor or particularly vulnerable. The text defines the conduct and carves out support that does not seek to change or suppress orientation, identity or gender expression.
Who it affects
Anyone offering or carrying out such treatments and the bodies organising them, and also victims, who currently have to fit the facts into general offences.
Source: the text published in the official parliamentary gazette and the Congress of Deputies open data on legislative initiatives. Informational content; it does not replace the study of a specific case.
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