portugal takes a step forward

Thanks to a socialist government, the women of Portugal will be more free of the Catholic Church's control of their reproductive decisions.
After a referendum on Portugal's strict abortion laws failed due to low voter turn-out, the country's Socialist government has announced that it will work to legalize abortion in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy.

Portuguese voters yesterday decisively voted to liberalize Portugal's extremely strict abortion law, but the results were considered invalid because only 44 percent of eligible voters cast a ballot; for a referendum to be considered binding, at least half of the country's eligible population must vote. Currently, Portuguese legislation allows for abortion only in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy if a woman's health or life is at risk. Women pregnant because of rape may be considered for an abortion until the 16th week.

Luis Marques Mendes, who heads the Social Democratic Party, remarked, "The will of the Portuguese must be respected," the BBC reports, suggesting that opposition parties will not attempt to veto new legislation that would liberalize the country's laws. Supporters of lifting the abortion ban cited over 23,000 illegal abortions performed yearly. Currently Portugal's abortion practices are some of most restrictive in the European Union.

The debate over Portugal's restrictive abortion laws heated up after Women on Waves raised awareness about them in 2004. WOW is a Dutch organization based on a ship. Their mission is to prevent unwanted pregnancy and unsafe abortions throughout the world, by travelling to countries where abortion is illegal and providing reproductive health services in international waters. When WOW tried to help Portuguese women in 2003, they were blocked by the Portuguese Navy.

In addition to Portugal, Women On Waves has had campaigns in Poland, Argentina, and their first, highly publicized campaign, in Ireland in 2001. Ireland has the most restrictive abortion laws in the Europe Union. More than 6,000 Irish women travel to Britain every year to obtain abortions.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

not so fast

Not everyone thinks the Conservative government is a lock. Canada's opposition Conservative Party, which is set to bring down the minority Liberal government later this week, was hit by a new opinion poll on Monday that showed it was trailing in the country's most vote-rich region. The Leger Marketing poll for the Sun chain of newspapers put support for the Liberals in the powerful central province of Ontario at 43 percent compared with 31 percent for the Conservatives. Ontario, a Liberal stronghold at the federal level for the past 12 years, accounts for 106 of the 308 seats in House of Commons, and no party can hope to form a government without doing well there. . . . Prime Minister Paul Martin's Liberals have been badly hurt by a corruption scandal and Conservative leader Stephen Harper says the government must be defeated as soon as possible. The Leger figures, however, suggest there is no guarantee Harper can end 12 years of Liberal rule. Thanks, ALPF! I must say, I...
Read more

dipstick

So there won't be an election yet. Talk about a squeaker . Feel free to tell us how you feel about this, unless it's all been said already, then feel free not to. ALPF mustered his courage and sent more links, so I have some good commentary to post. I found this Macleans story on the Conservative party's reaction to Stronach's decision - and public reaction to that reaction - very interesting. Canadians seem almost universally turned off by the name-calling and sexist slurs. On the other hand, when a certain governor made his "girly men" pronouncement, his constituency howled with glee. (Which is not to say the rest of us weren't appalled.) The Macleans article also notes that not all the sexism came from politicians: Some of the most sexist characterizations of Stronach didn't come from her political adversaries, but from media. Montreal's La Presse newspaper ran a cartoon of Martin leaning out his car window to solicit a street-walking Stronach...
Read more