The Religious Consultation
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Agence France-Presse, March 31, 2005 Abortion Trial
Resumes in Portugal amid Protests LISBON (AFP) - About 100 pro-abortion activists protested outside a Portuguese court as the trial of three women accused of violating the staunchly Roman Catholic nation's strict rules against abortion resumed. Public prosecutors in the industrial city of Setubal, just south of Lisbon, have charged two young women who had abortions as well as a nurse who allegedly carried out the procedures in exchange for around 400 euros (515 dollars). Abortion is banned in Portugal except in cases involving rape or where there are serious health concerns. If convicted the nurse faces a sentence of up to eight years in jail while the two women could get up to three years behind bars. The trial got under way last June but was quickly suspended after a lawyer for the defence filed a motion -- which ultimately failed -- to have the presiding judge in the case removed. The lawyer for the nurse on Wednesday requested that the trial be suspended until after a new referendum on Portugal's abortion laws, expected sometime next year, is held, but the judge on Thursday rejected the request. "It does not make sense to put women on trial for the crime of abortion when there is a real chance that the law will be changed shortly," said lawmaker Odete Santos of the Communist Party, who is acting as a defence lawyer for the two women accused of having had abortions. Pro-abortion campaigners, mostly women, held signs with the names of the roughly 20 women who have been put on trial in recent years for abortion in Portugal as well as placards calling for the end to abortion trials outside the courthouse. They also staged a mock abortion trial on the steps of the building. New Prime Minister Jose Socrates has said his Socialist government, elected last month, will stick to a campaign pledge to hold a fresh vote on the abortion laws but has not yet set a date for the referendum. Polls have shown that most Portuguese are in favor of loosening the nation's abortion laws, which are among the strictest in Europe. In a 1998 referendum the Portuguese rejected by a whisker a proposal to allow abortion on demand during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. Nearly seven out of 10 voters stayed away from the poll. Several trials of women accused of having had an abortion held in recent years have resulted in acquittals, with judges usually invoking insufficient evidence for their ruling. The number of back-alley abortions annually in Portugal is estimated at between about 20,000 and 40,000, while thousands more go abroad to terminate unwanted pregnancies. << Agence France-Presse -- 3/31/05 >>
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