BY MARGARET ALLUM
A trial of 42 women accused of violating Portugal's strict anti-abortion laws has resulted in a string of convictions, including eight-and-a-half years in prison for Maria do Ceu Ribeiro. Ribeiro, a midwife, was convicted on January 18 for allegedly performing more than 100 abortions over a 15-year period.
Many of the defendants were acquitted, including most of the 17 women accused of receiving abortions; some had jail sentences reduced to fines.
Ribeiro's sentence was short of the maximum 12 years possible for performing illegal abortions. The court said it had "taken into account that [Ribeiro] did it to help other women".
The three-month trial, which began in October, was held in the small town of Maia, north of Portugal's second largest city, Oporto. Pro-choice organisations, women's rights groups and activists around the world and left-wing MPs in Portugal have condemned the prosecutions.
Until 1984, abortion was outlawed in Portugal, although the law was rarely enforced. A law allowing abortion only in cases of rape, foetal deformation or danger to the life or health of the pregnant woman was approved in 1984 by Portugal's parliament.
The Portuguese Family Planning Association (APF) started a push on abortion research in 1991, drawing together a network of pro-choice groups and sparking a public discussion on abortion access. At this time, the number of legal abortions was around 100 a year, but research revealed that at least 20,000 terminations were occurring annually. Many women were also travelling to Spain for terminations.
Ministry of Health statistics show that illegal abortions are a leading cause of maternal death and more than 5000 women are admitted each year into Portugal's public hospitals with post-abortion complications.
In 1996, the Communist Party proposed the introduction of legal abortion on demand up to the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. The Liberal Party proposed a referendum on the issue. The proposals were narrowly rejected by parliament. In early 1998, parliament approved a new proposal for legal abortion on demand for up to the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, but later compromised for a referendum instead.
The campaign for a yes vote to allow abortion on demand for the first 10 weeks of pregnancy was strong. It was mainly the smaller left parties that campaigned for a yes vote and a majority of health professionals were enthusiastic.
The role of the Catholic Church in the no campaign was dominant, especially in the more conservative north.
Unfortunately, probably because opinion polls showed that the yes campaign had a clear majority, nearly 70% of voters abstained from making their opinion official. A 32% voter turnout resulted in the referendum being declared invalid because it fell short of the 50% voter participation required. Of those who did participate, around 51% voted no. Later polls revealed that a majority of those who abstained would have voted yes.
Duate Vilar, executive director of APF, maintains that the campaign for choice in Portugal will continue. However, according to the International Planned Parenthood Foundation (IPPF), Vilar has stated that he is afraid that these latest prosecutions will mean that the safer, but still illegal, abortion services will close down. Desperate women will be forced to seek abortions later in their pregnancies.
[More information about the reproductive rights situation in Portugal and around the world can be found at the IPPF web site at .]
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, January 30, 2002.
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