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Abortion Referendum Launched in Portugal

LISBON, June 30, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Portugal’s Socialist-led parliament has approved a referendum on abortion for next week, July 8. In the February election, the Socialist party ran on a platform that included a promise to conduct a national referendum to overturn the country's official prohibition on abortion. Socialists hold 121 of the 230 seats in parliament.

In May, Portugal’s president said an abortion referendum would be delayed until 2006, fearing that a summer referendum would not yield the minimum 50% voter turnout necessary for the result to be binding.

The proposal seeks to make abortion on demand legal up to the 10th week of pregnancy. The question reads: "Do you agree that abortions, carried out in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, with the woman's consent, in a legal medical establishment, should no longer be illegal?"

In the last abortion referendum, on June 28, 1998, Portuguese voters rejected a bid to introduce abortion on demand in the largely Roman Catholic country. Only 31% of registered voters took part in the referendum; but of those, 51% voted against a change in the law. Despite the results of the referendum, the ruling Socialist Party plans to go ahead. Portuguese law stipulates that a referendum is binding only when at least 50% of registered voters take part.

Portugal's current abortion law limits the procedure to cases where a pregnancy is thought to endanger a woman's health, or in cases of pregnancy caused by rape. The law forbids all abortions after the 12th week of pregnancy. There were 300 legal abortions in Portugal last year.

Before a plan to renew debate on legalizing abortion in Portuguese parliament in March 2004, a coalition of pro-life groups known as “More Life, More Family” collected 190,000 signatures in their bid to prevent a change to the abortion law. “The solution for a woman in difficulty should never be the death of her unborn child,” said coalition leader Teresa Aires de Campos at a news conference then. “We want to create a society where a newborn child is never seen as a burden that needs to be eliminated. We want to create a country where a child is always welcomed.” Portugal parliament later voted to retain the abortion law as it stood at the time.

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Abortion-Pushing Socialists Elected in Portugal
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/feb/05022105.html
Abortion Referendum in Portugal Approved by Socialist-Led Government
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/apr/05042102.html

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