Spain's Congress passes bill qualifying all non-consensual sex as rape

FILE PHOTO: Protesters hold placards as they attend a demonstration against a Spanish court which sentenced five of six men accused of gang-raping a 14-year-old girl to 10 to 12 years in prison for sexually abusing the minor, but acquitted them of rape, outside the Justice Ministry in Madrid, Spain, November 4, 2019. The placards read: "You're not alone" and "It's not abuse, it's rape." REUTERS/Sergio Perez

MADRID (Reuters) -Spain's lower house of parliament on Thursday passed a bill that qualifies all non-consensual sex as rape in response to social outrage after the so-called Wolf Pack case gave momentum to the women's rights movement in the country four years ago.

The government-proposed legislation, known as "Only yes is yes", merges the crimes of sexual abuse and sexual assault into the same type of crime qualified as rape, and victims will no longer have to prove violence or resistance.