At his first Parliamentary appearance as Minister of Justice, he announced his intention to reform the abortion law approved by the previous Zapatero government, a law based on time limits, the same as the ones existing in most European countries, widely criticized by the Catholic Church and by the People's Party (in particular in relation to the group comprising young people aged about 16–18 years, who could legally get an abortion despite the opposition of their parents) to return to the 1985 law, by which a woman had to invoke some reason to justify her decision.