...where, unlike here at home, abortion laws are liberalizing - although not without the emotion that also surrounds the issue in the United States. From the LA Times:
Until this month, heavily Catholic Portugal remained one of the last countries in Europe forbidding most abortions. In addition, it was the rare country that criminally prosecuted women who had abortions and doctors who performed them — a legal regime that the Portuguese prime minister described as a "national disgrace" and that critics elsewhere branded as "medieval."
Abortions can now be performed without restriction during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, and under some circumstances through the second trimester...Even with the law, numerous doctors are refusing to perform the procedure and are declaring themselves "conscientious objectors." Several public hospitals said they would not be able to offer abortions, despite the legal obligation to do so, because they lacked the doctors or necessary equipment...
The powerful Roman Catholic Church in Portugal condemned the proposed law as a "blow against civilization" that would authorize "an abominable crime"...The debate cleaved distinct lines in Portuguese society: Along with the refusenik doctors and the church hierarchy, conservative rural Portugal opposed lifting the restrictions, while the urban elite, the young and many women supported the legislation.
Nearly 60% of voters in a February national referendum approved of liberalizing the abortion law, but the poll was declared invalid because of a low turnout. The Socialist-led government of Prime Minister Jose Socrates, with a majority in parliament, decided to draft and enact the measure anyway. "We all thought we were behind the times," said Maria de Belem, a former health minister and congresswoman in Socrates' Socialist Party who championed liberalizing the abortion law as an urgent public health issue.
Without better family planning and access to birth control as a first step, and abortion as a last resort, she said, Portugal cannot fight a growing epidemic of unwanted children who end up on the streets, abused or crowding into the few government-run institutions. "We cannot deny the social reality when women cannot practice their reproductive rights," Belem said. "We cannot close our eyes to a very difficult situation for Portuguese families and couples with real problems, who cannot support the children they already have."
