1,000 women hospitalised in Portugal after backstreet abortions


LISBON (AFP) - More than 1,000 women in Portugal had to be hospitalised last year due to complications following backstreet abortions in a country whose laws forbid legal abortion, health statistics showed.


The figure "clashed with the 123 clandestine abortions officially identified by the authorities last year," said a report by the public health authority DGS, published Wednesday in the newspaper Publico.


DGS said the contradiction was due to the fact that public statistics covered only officially proved illegal terminations.


The number of clandestine abortions annually in Portugal is reckoned at between approximately 20,000 and 40,000.


A Lisbon court on Tuesday acquitted a woman charged as a teenager with illegally terminating her pregnancy by taking pills used to treat stomach ulcers, in the latest case to fuel debate on Portugal's strict anti-abortion laws.


A judge found the accused not guilty for lack of proof.


The trial renewed debate in the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country on its abortion laws, among the most restrictive in Europe.


The practice is illegal in Portugal except when the mother's life is in danger or in certain specified conditions, such as the risk of damage to physical or mental health, sexual violence or possible congenital deformity.


Pro-abortion campaigners in Portugal argue that the laws force thousands of women into life-threatening operations in backstreet clinics, often in highly unsanitary conditions. But anti-abortion activists argue the procedure should remain a crime because it puts an end to a human life.


Polls show the vast majority of Portuguese want a fresh vote on the abortion laws to be held, but the centre-right government has said no new referendum will be held during its current term ending in 2006.



wow how can anyone even do that to a baby in the first place