Abortion laws in Portugal were liberalized on April 10, 2007, allowing the procedure to be performed on-demand if a woman's pregnancy has not exceeded its tenth week. There is a three-day waiting period for abortions. President Aníbal Cavaco Silva ratified the law allowing abortion, recommending nevertheless that measures should be taken to ensure abortion is the last resort. Despite the liberalization of the laws, as of a 2011 survey, many doctors were refusing to perform abortionswhich they are allowed to do under a conscientious objection clause. Abortions at later stages are allowed for specific reasons, such as risk to woman's health reasons, rape and other sexual crimes, or fetal malformation; with restrictions increasing gradually at 12, 16 and 24 weeks.
History and progression of legislation
There were two referenda about abortion, one in June 1998 and another in February 2007. Because the turnout was always below 50%, none of the two were legally binding according to the Constitution of Portugal. The law was signed into law after a February 2007 referendum approved of liberalizing the abortion laws. Before April 2007, abortion was regulated by Law 6/84 and Law 90/97, and was strongly restricted, allowed only for health reasons, rape and sexual crimes, and fetal malformation. Although during that period the abortion laws in Portugal were relatively similar to those of neighboringSpain, in practice, the law was given a much stricter interpretation in Portugal than in Spain, and obtaining a legal abortion was quite difficult. A previous referendum in June 1998 failed to liberalize the abortion law by a slim margin. the abortion rate was 9.0 abortions per 1000 women aged 15–44 years. In February 2016, the Portuguese Parliament overrode Aníbal Cavaco Silva's veto and officially reversed a law instituting mandatory counseling and medical payments for women seeking an abortion through the publichealth service which had been rushed through by the previous conservative government when it was already in recess before the elections of October 2015 and had no powers to enact any legislation. The president signed the bill into law on 19 February 2016.
