Portugal to decide on legalising abortion
Portugal’s parliament has voted for a national referendum on legalising abortion in the strictly conservative Roman Catholic country.
If approved, abortion would be legal up to the 10th week of pregnancy.
The bid for a referendum was backed by the governing centre-left Socialists, the Social Democrats and the Left Bloc. The Communist and Green parties opposed, while Christian Democrats abstained. Some individual MPs also either opposed or abstained.
Portugal has one of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe, with the procedure allowed only in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy and only in cases of rape, foetal malformation or if a mother’s health is at risk.
The referendum is expected to be held in January, but no date was set because the proposal still needs to be rubber-stamped by the Constitutional Court and the president.
In Europe, only Poland and Ireland have similarly restrictive rules on abortion, and Malta forbids abortion altogether.
Portuguese women who can afford it travel to abortion clinics across the border in Spain. Even so, pro-choice groups claim around 10,000 women are taken to hospital every year in Portugal due to complications arising from botched back-street procedures.
“We have to end this blight of back-street abortions,” prime minister Jose Socrates said last weekend. “It makes Portugal a backward country.”
During debate before the vote, supporters of legalising abortion pressed their case.
“Our current laws say that a woman who aborts should be criminally prosecuted,” said Socialist MP Alberto Martins. “This is, in the 21st century and in Europe, an unfair, cruel, retrograde and irrational stance.”
Still, it is not entirely certain whether voters will agree. The powerful Roman Catholic church stands firmly against legalisation.
A 1998 referendum that would have legalised abortion was declared void because of poor voter turnout, but with the No vote winning narrowly.
More than 50% of the country’s registered voters need to cast ballots for a referendum to be valid.
