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February 20, 2007
Young woman smiling
A more liberal abortion law in Portugal could mean safer reproductive-health options for its women.
Photo courtesy of Richard Lord.

Portugal may reform its abortion law, if the nation’s politicians give the green light to a recent referendum in which a majority of voters cast their ballots in favor of allowing abortions upon request through the 10th week of pregnancy.

Currently, Portugal has one of Europe’s most restrictive abortion laws, allowing pregnancy termination only when the life or health of the mother is in jeopardy; in cases of fetal malformation; or when the woman has been raped.

But on Feb. 11, the country held its second referendum in nine years to decide whether to broaden the circumstances in which abortion is permissible.

About 59 percent of the participating voters said yes to the referendum question: “Do you agree with the decriminalization of abortion if it is performed in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, at the request of the woman, in a legal medical establishment?” The remaining 40 percent answered no.

But the percentage of “yes” voters still does not ensure a law revision. In Portugal, 50 percent of registered voters must take part in referendums in order for the outcomes to be legally binding. Turnout for the Feb. 11 ballot didn’t meet that mark, with less than 45 percent of those registered making an appearance at the polls.

Yet advocates for safe abortion remain hopeful that the country’s legislators will honor the referendum results and introduce a parliamentary motion that would reform the law.

They say that widening the abortion law will save lives, as an estimated 15,000 Portuguese women and girls seek unsafe abortions each year and some die from these procedures. Countless more travel to Spain or other nations where abortion laws are much looser, to obtain abortions in a phenomenon that some groups, such as Women on Waves, refer to as “abortion tourism.” 

Sara Ferreira, a Lisbon-based medical student and a spokeswoman for Médicos Pela Escolha (Doctors for Choice), said that government support is key to whether Portugal will indeed liberalize its abortion law. Ipas contributed to Médicos Pela Escolha’s outreach efforts before and after the referendum.

The difference between this vote and the 1998 referendum, in which opponents barely eked out a victory to uphold the restrictive law, is that more politicians are now weighing in for liberalization. For example, Socialist Prime Minister José Sócrates said the referendum’s result represented “progress for Portugal, which took a step towards joining the most modern, developed and open European societies.” His party is expected to initiate parliamentary discussions about transforming the nonbinding referendum results into law. According to various news reports, Sócrates has also called illegal abortion “a scar on society.”

Ferreira said: “The ruling political party in the government is on the side of decriminalization and is actually campaigning for it. … This was an important move because [in 1998], the Socialist Party was the leading power in the government and they did nothing to support the campaign.”

Ferreira also said the health-care community was successful in countering anti-choice rhetoric coming from other political parties, factions in the Roman Catholic Church and its allied organizations — some of whom were asking for further restrictions of the abortion law. Bolstered by support from citizen’s groups, the Voto Sim (“Vote Yes”) alliance of concerned politicians and youth coalitions, health-care providers helped turn the tide toward decriminalization.

She continued: “In this profoundly Catholic country … every Sunday was a day for a campaign in the churches. Priests said that abortion is a crime against life and that everybody who considers themselves a good Christian should vote no.” For example, the influential patriarch of Lisbon urged Catholics to vote against the measure.

But in the run-up to the vote, Ferreira believes that health-care providers “have started a new dialogue. Scientific evidence and our experience with complications from illegal abortion gave us some credibility to speak for choice. … We went to schools, debates, information sessions and press conferences to talk about important issues, such as what would happen with our national health system if the ‘yes’ won, whether it will support the changes or whether it is capable of doing it.”

If and how Portugal will change its abortion law is now in the hands of its Parliament and its people, whose will contributed to the “yes” votes prevailing.

Public opinion has been shifting since the 1998 vote in which the “no” side won by less than 2 percentage points. The difference: In the time between the 1998 and 2007 votes, citizens watched as women endured public trials because they stood accused of inducing illegal abortions. In Portugal, women can receive sentences of up to three years in prison for procuring an unsafe abortion.

Ferreira said: “After nine years, people want change. They know illegal abortion is out there. It is a reality we can’t ignore.” 

For Ferreira and her colleagues, illegal abortion is a reality they face all too often in emergency rooms. While doing a rotation in obstetrics-gynecology, Ferreira encountered a 17-year-old patient who had tried to end a pregnancy and was suffering a serious infection.

“She started bleeding some days ago, but didn’t want anyone to know. She was alone. No boyfriend, no parents. We called her mother, who didn’t know she was pregnant.

“What affected me the most was seeing that if the law was different, this girl wouldn’t have been in the emergency [room] with her life in danger. Above all, she would not have been so scared and confused. She would have had someone to talk to before resorting to unsafe abortion.

“The ‘yes’ vote means that every woman who wants to end an unwanted pregnancy can do it in a health-care unit recognized by the state as safe. … It also means that the women can be supported during that period by having nonbiased counseling by health professionals and having all the support to make an informed and free decision.”

For more information, contact:
Kirsten Sherk
Senior Associate, Media Relations
e-mail: sherkk@ipas.org
phone: 919.960.5612
fax: 919.929.0258