Victory for women in Portugal abortion vote

Advocates for women and progressives in Portugal greeted the 60-percent majority vote for legalization of abortion there in a Feb. 11 referendum as a victory for the health and dignity of women.

Communist youth mobilize to support legalization of abortion in Portugal. Photo: Avante!

Since 44 percent or fewer than half the 8.7 million voters participated, the results of this referendum are not legally binding. But because of the strong “yes” vote to allow abortion through the tenth week of pregnancy, legislators say they will submit the new law to parliament where a majority from the ruling Socialist Party (SP), the Communist Party (PCP) and others promise to support it. A 1998 referendum on abortion had only 30 percent participation and narrowly defeated legalization.

Spokespeople from the Green Party, the Democratic Women’s Movement (MDM), the Movement for “YES” and the PCP all greeted the result as a victory for women’s health and well-being. Angela Sabino, spokesperson for the MDM in the Evora district, said, “With the referendum result, the MDM has managed to breathe a sigh of relief, because this fundamental right to sexual and reproductive health will stay as a permanent part of the Penal Code.” Evora, long an area of PCP strength, voted 78 percent “yes.”

Portugal’s current law bans all abortions except those performed up to 12 weeks in cases of rape, a malformed fetus or when the woman’s life is in danger. Poland and Ireland are the only other European countries with similar restrictions. An estimated 20,000 illegal abortions are performed annually in Portugal. A high proportion of these result in serious complications, with about 10,000 women a year requiring hospitalization or medical treatment afterwards.

In the U.S. before Roe v. Wade, abortion providers faced criminal penalties. In Portugal not only do the providers face prison, but also the women undergoing abortion and anyone who assists them in obtaining the abortion.

Scores of women accused of having illegal abortions and people who helped them have been prosecuted since 2002. Televised trials subject the defendants to public humiliation and they can be imprisoned for up to three years. A midwife convicted of performing abortions was sent to jail for seven years.

Poor women suffer the most under this law. Just across the Spanish border, only a few hours drive from any place in Portugal, women can obtain safe, legal abortions in clinics built just over the border, with Spanish doctors authorizing them for psychological reasons. Thousands of Portuguese women go there every year. But those too poor or without know-how or connections to get to Spain are forced to resort to dangerous clandestine abortions.

Women’s groups and progressive organizations campaigned actively for legalization of abortion. The PCP and its allied youth and women’s organizations mobilized during the months leading up to the referendum, and the PCP’s weekly newspaper, Avante, campaigned for legalization in front-page articles before the referendum and called for improved family benefits for mothers, fathers and children, better reproductive health care and sex education. Criminalization never has and never will prevent illegal abortion and the resulting damage to women’s health, pointed out Avante.

The PCP also supports legalization of abortion up to the twelfth week of pregnancy, rather than the tenth week.

Workers World spoke to Manuela Vasconcelos, a former trade union leader in the northern city of Porto. “This is an important achievement for women’s rights and democracy in general,” she said. Porto, the country’s second city and a stronghold of the Catholic Church, nevertheless voted for legalization in this referendum, reversing its “no” vote of 1998.

The Catholic Church mobilized for continued criminalization of abortion, urging members to participate in the referendum by voting “no” to legalization and threatening excommunication for those voting “yes.” About 90 percent of Portuguese are at least nominally Catholic.

Much of the corporate media framed the referendum as a struggle between the conservative church hierarchy and modern urban ideas and referred to the outcome as a defeat due to low turnout. Those who mobilized to vote “yes” considered the result an important step forward in the struggle for women’s reproductive rights and a show of solidarity with poor women who are the greatest victims of the current repressive law. They know, however, that further struggle will be needed to assure that clinics and hospitals throughout Portugal make abortions available and accessible to all Portuguese women who need them.