Three Portuguese women are sentenced to prison time for procuring illegal abortions. The doctor who performed their abortions is also being sent to jail, along with his assistant.
Portugal is one of the only European countries where abortion is generally illegal (it is permitted under the usual very narrow circumstances). Hopefully, that will change soon, as the people of Portugal seem a bit uncomfortable with jailing doctors and women, and probably aren’t too enthusiastic about the scores of women who are injured and maimed from illegal abortions.
The public in a 1998 referendum voted 51% to 49% to reject a measure that would have allowed abortion in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. Former Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso in January 2004 barred another referendum from taking place during his administration’s term (Kaiser Daily Women’s Health Policy Report, 2/19/04). Officials say that about 10,000 women annually in Portugal are treated at hospitals for complications caused by illegal abortions (Associated Press, 7/4).