An abortion referendum took place in Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

 on February 11, 2007, to decide whether to legalise abortion up to ten weeks. The referendum was the fulfillment of an election pledge by the governing Socialist Party

Socialist Party (Portugal)

The Socialist Party , abbreviated to PS, is a social-democratic political party in Portugal. It was founded on 19 April 1973 in the German city of Bad Münstereifel, by militants from Portuguese Socialist Action ....

 of Prime Minister José Sócrates

José Sócrates

José Sócrates Carvalho Pinto de Sousa, GCIH , commonly known by José Sócrates , is a Portuguese politician who was the Prime Minister of Portugal from 12 March 2005 to 21 June 2011....

.

Official results of the referendum showed that 59.24% of the Portuguese approved the proposal put on ballot, while 40.76% rejected it. However, only 43.61% of the registered voters turned out to vote. Since abstention

Abstention

Abstention is a term in election procedure for when a participant in a vote either does not go to vote or, in parliamentary procedure, is present during the vote, but does not cast a ballot. Abstention must be contrasted with "blank vote", in which a voter casts a ballot willfully made invalid by...

 was over 50%, according to the Portuguese Constitution, these results are not legally binding, and parliament can legally decide to disregard them. Prime Minister Sócrates nevertheless confirmed that he would expand the circumstances under which abortion was allowed, since a majority of voters had been in favour.

The law was ratified by President

President of Portugal

Portugal has been a republic since 1910, and since that time the head of state has been the president, whose official title is President of the Portuguese Republic ....

 Aníbal Cavaco Silva

Aníbal Cavaco Silva

Aníbal António Cavaco Silva, GCC , is the President of Portugal. He won the Portuguese presidential election on 22 January 2006 and was re-elected on 23 January 2011, for a second five-year term. Cavaco Silva was sworn in on 9 March 2006....

 on April 10, 2007.

Question

The question in the referendum was:

Under the current law, abortions are allowed up 12 weeks if the mother's life or mental or physical health is at risk, up to 16 weeks in cases of rape and up to 24 weeks if the child may be born with an incurable disease or deformity. The new law, approved on 9 March 2007, allows abortions on request up to the tenth week.

Political positions

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

• Left
  • Portuguese Communist Party
    Portuguese Communist Party
    The Portuguese Communist Party is a major left-wing political party in Portugal. It is a Marxist-Leninist party, and its organization is based upon democratic centralism. The party also considers itself to be patriotic and internationalist....
    
     - YES
  • Leftwing Bloc - YES
  • Ecologist Party "The Greens" - YES
  • Socialist Party
    Socialist Party (Portugal)
    The Socialist Party , abbreviated to PS, is a social-democratic political party in Portugal. It was founded on 19 April 1973 in the German city of Bad Münstereifel, by militants from Portuguese Socialist Action ....
    
     - YES
• Right
  • Social Democratic Party
    Social Democratic Party (Portugal)
    The Social Democratic Party , is a centre-right liberal conservative political party in Portugal. It is commonly known by its initials, PSD; on ballot papers, its initials appear as PPD/PSD, with the first three letters coming from the party's original name, Democratic People's Party...
    
     - NEUTRAL (the party is divided, however, important members, including the then leader, Luís Marques Mendes
    Luís Marques Mendes
    Luís Manuel Gonçalves Marques Mendes is a Portuguese lawyer and politician, and a former Leader of the Social Democratic Party.-Career:...
    
    , say NO)
  • Democratic and Social Centre – People's Party - NO

Polls

A December 2006 Aximage/Correio da Manhã

Correio da Manhã

Correio da Manhã is a major daily Portuguese newspaper , published in Lisbon. It is published by the publishing division of the Cofina group.It is regarded as the most read general newspaper in the country....

 poll had found that 61% of Portugal's electorate supported the proposal, 26% did not, and 12% were "not sure". An earlier survey from October 2006 had yielded similar results. However, a poll from mid-January 2007 had seen support drop to 38 to 28 in favour.

Results

No: 1,534,669 (40.75%)			Yes: 2,231,539 (59.25%)
▲

Results by district

District	Turnout	Yes vote	No vote	Yes %	No %
Azores Azores The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...	29.49	17,022	38,489	30.66	69.34
Aveiro	42.29	110,644	137,312	44.62	55.38
Beja	39.82	45,028	8,641	83.90	16.10
Braga	46.20	132,507	187,911	41.35	58.65
Bragança	34.07	20,445	29,722	40.75	59.25
Castelo Branco	40.15	45,976	28,601	61.65	38.35
Coimbra	40.04	92,828	54,769	62.89	37.11
EvoraÉvora	43.00	48,274	13,312	78.38	21.62
Faro	38.78	89,132	31,440	73.92	26.08
Guarda	38.27	27,725	31,865	46.53	53.47

District	Turnout	Yes vote	No vote	Yes %	No %
Leiria	43.76	97,292	69,585	58.30	41.70
Lisbon	48.67	607,419	242,467	71.47	28.53
Madeira Madeira Madeira is a Portuguese archipelago that lies between and , just under 400 km north of Tenerife, Canary Islands, in the north Atlantic Ocean and an outermost region of the European Union...	38.89	30,209	57,091	34.60	65.40
Portalegre	38.92	30,507	10,478	74.45	25.55
Porto Porto District The District of Porto , sometimes Oporto in English, is located on the north-west coast of Portugal. The district capital is the city of Porto, the second largest city in the country...	44.86	350,868	294,599	54.36	45.64
Santarém	44.16	109,051	58,434	65.11	34.89
Setúbal	48.77	259,684	57,032	81.99	18.01
Viana do Castelo	39.54	37,096	54,023	40.71	59.29
Vila Real	34.28	28.871	46,921	38.09	61.91
Viseu	37.71	50,931	81,977	38.32	61.68

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History

In 1998 the same question had been put in another referendum. In this case a small majority voted no and the law was not implemented.

External links

• Results of the referendum