Portuguese abortion referendum, 1998

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Portugal
This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Portugal

In June of 1998 a referendum on a new abortion law was carried out in Portugal, it was the first national referendum in the Portuguese history. The law project was made by the Communist Party and it decriminalized abortion before the 10 weeks of pregnancy and was considered by the left as the only way to put an end to the estimated 50.000 illegal abortions in the country and had been previously approved in the Assembly of the Republic due to a majority of the center-left and left-wing parties, but an agreement between the Socialist and Social Democratic parties leaders led to the referendum. The referendum was held in the summer, and so, the turnout was so low that it didn't passed the threshold of 50% of the voters needed to make the decision official, although the winning answer, the NO, was respected and nowadays (as of 2005) the abortion is still forbidden in Portugal and in the last year, about 30 women (a very little part of the 50.000 estimated abortions) took part in 3 mediatic trials after making an abortion. In April of 2005, a new law was approved and is now awaiting the date of another referendum.

The question present in the ballots was: "Do you agree with the decriminalization of the voluntary interruption of the pregnancy, if it takes place in the first 10 weeks and in an authorized healthcare institution?"

The major parties in Portugal at the time listed with their political positioning and their official answer to the referendum question:

Left
- Portuguese Communist Party - YES
- Leftwing Bloc - YES
- Communist Party of the Portuguese Workers - YES
- Ecologist Party "The Greens" - YES

Center
- Portuguese Socialist Party - YES (however, important members, including the General-Secretary and Prime-Minister António Guterres were against)