Vatican loses abortion battle in Portugal, but pushes on in Poland

Portugal's president yesterday ratified a new law permitting abortion up until the 10th week of pregnancy but recommended a raft of measures that would discourage the procedure in the mostly Roman Catholic country. Parliament voted overwhelmingly last month to legalize abortion, scrapping previous tight restrictions and bringing Portugal in line with most of its European neighbors. The legislation came after a referendum in February that favoured the change.

Though he gave his formal consent to the new law, President Anibal Cavaco Silva described abortion as a “social evil to be avoided”. He said in a statement that women seeking the procedure should be shown an ultrasound of the fetus, and doctors who oppose abortion should be allowed to counsel them. Women should also be informed about the possibility of their child being adopted and be told about the possible psychological and physical consequences of an abortion, he said.

The governing centre-left Socialist Party has long fought for the legalisation of abortion. Prime Minister Jose Socrates, whose party took power in a landslide victory two years ago after promising broad reforms and nationwide modernization, made the new abortion law a priority. He described the old abortion law as “backward and a national disgrace”. Cavaco Silva urged the government to evaluate the law’s effects to ensure there is no sharp rise in the number of abortions.

The Catholic Church, however, campaigned strongly against the change. As is usual, it made predictions of catastrophic social consequences and negative consequences for all who supported the legislation.

Meanwhile, The Catholic Church in Poland is pushing the government to have a complete ban on abortion written into the Polish Constitution. It hopes to get the constitutional amendment through quickly in order to thwart any EU directives that might force Poland to liberalise its draconian laws.

“In this matter of greatest importance for fatherland, nation and Church, we encourage and summon everyone to prayer,” the head of the Church’s Family Commission, Bishop Kazimierz Gorny, said in an appeal to MPs.

The appeal was issued as MPs prepared to debate the constitutional amendment protecting life “from the moment of conception”, which was tabled in October by the co-governing League of Polish Families and backed by the bishops’ conference last month. Bishop Andrzej Dziega of Sandomierz urged citizens to back the measure during a 5,000-strong Warsaw rally organised by the crypto-fascist broadcaster, Radio Maryja.

Poland’s 1993 law allows abortions only in cases of rape, incest and severe foetal damage or if a woman’s life and health are endangered, and has cut officially registered terminations to 200 per year.

Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society, said: “Here we see what the Roman Catholic Church would so everywhere if it got the chance. It is an obscenity for women to be forced to give birth to a child who was conceived through rape, or who is known to be severely handicapped. Back street abortions will be the new boom industry with all the terrible extra risks that they involve for women.”

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