PORTUGAL Abortion: Nothing has Changed
In Portugal, there are about 180,000 abortions a year. This is true even thought the law declares abortion illegal and punishable by a prison term of 2 to 8 years. This law dates from 1886.
The conditions in which these abortions are performed account for the death of approximately 2,000 women annually. The desperation and strong determination of these women who can not or will not have more children pushes them to resort to the most diverse and the most primitive procedures.
When misery and ignorance are rampant, women have recourse to cabbage stalks, parsley stems, knitting needles. If their means and environment permit, women pay amateurs or, in the best imaginable situation, midwives, that abort them for 1,500 to 4,000 escudos. This sum is the equivalent of a month's wages for a Portuguese worker. We know of women who have done more than 30 abortions in their lives.
To minimize expenses, anti-bionics, anesthesia, hygienic conditions are not provided. The clandestine abortion is a business sustained by social hypocrisy from which some people (and not only the mid-wives) derive huge profits. The clandestine conditions in which abortion is performed in Portugal represent needless humiliation and danger.
The consequences are well-known: severe hemorrhaging, perforation of the uterus, sterility and sometimes death.
Recently, Doctor Antero Torres declared in a Porto daily newspaper "Jornal de Noticias", that at Saint Anthony's Hospital in that city, more than 1,000 cases of self-induced abortion are admitted annually (1095 in 1975), the consequences of which would be tragic if these women hadn't had recourse to medical services.
And this is only in one hospital!
In Portugal, the crime of abortion strikes at either the woman who aborts or at the person who performs the abortion or even anyone considered to be an accomplice. The penalty is from 2 to 8 years of prison.
In the daily newspaper, "Mulher", a journalist, Maria-Antonia Fiadeiro, wrote about a case sent to the central women's prison in Tires.
A woman was denounced and arrested a few years after having aborted. At the time she was already married and the mother of 2 children
She served 2 years in prison, which was harmful to the education of the children. A few months after her she was pregnant again. Fearing abortion and another arrest, she killed herself.
In 1975, there was only one woman serving a prison sentence for having performed an abortion and none for having aborted. But since 1954, 223 women have been sentenced, 154 for having performed abortions and 69 for having procured them. Among those sentenced for having performed an abortion, only one was a woman-doctor. Most of them were midwives, seamstresses, servants. The majority had no occupation: they were "bystanders".
As for those who aborted, the majority were "without a trade", immediately followed by household servants and farm laborers.
In Portugal as elsewhere where abortion is prohibited, the law pursues above all the weakest and most culturally deprived classes.
The situation remained unchanged after the revolution of April 1974.
Three journalists, Maria Antonia Palla, Antonia de Sousa and Susanna Ruth Vasques, who have been showing a television program on the condition of women for the last year and a half, decided to make a film entitled "Abortion is not a Crime". In this film, produced by a group which performs free abortions on demand in the women's home, there was a demonstration of the Karman method. This experience becomes part of community political action.
This program was shown on television on February 4th. It provoked a wave of protests by right wing organizations who attacked it as scandalous and by the Catholic Church.
The Medical Association called this method and the way in which it was applied charlatanism; those responsible for the broadcast were, according to them, anti-scientific in posters and criminals under common law.
The parties, such as the Christian Democrats and the Social Democratic Center, affirmed that the program constituted a defense of a crime and that, consequently, those responsible should be punished; the Popular Democratic party also defended the illegality of abortion and took a stand against the practice of abortion.
The Church, through the Bishops' Conference protested against the program because the Catholic Church condemns abortion in the name of respect for "the most fundamental of all human rights; the right to be and to exist".
The Council of Laymen (Catholic) found that the program incited to crime.
Television critics and, in a general way, the press were hostile to the program. Only one leftist critic dared to praise the program, calling it very courageous and uniting with us in our struggle.
The leftist parties kept total silence on the subject, the Socialist Party included, although it was the only leftist party to mention legalization of abortion in its program. The explanation perhaps lies in the fact that elections are coming up and elected officials are afraid of shocking their electorates.
Only the daily paper "Mulher" and the group which performs abortions by the Karman method, the RAAC, spoke in favor of the program
The television, following violent criticisms launched against it for having shown the film, organized a televised debate in which 2 doctors, a sociologist, a priest and the Public Prosecutor participated All agreed that the law on abortion had to be repealed but, because of its existence, said it must be enforced.
The Public Prosecutor ordered an investigation by the Judicial Police in order to prosecute the journalists responsible for the program, the television crew that produced it and the television for having broadcasted it.
We don't know yet what will be the outcome of this affair. But considering the reaction of the right wing and the silence of the left, we fear the trial will be used as an example, to post-pone until a later time the legalization or the liberalization of abortion, and to satisfy the reactionary currents that are still very strong in Portugal. We realize also the fact that in our country, in spite of the revolutionary movement which continues, the cultural revolution is still a long way off.
The situation of women remains the same as it was before April 25, 1974.
Abortion is only one example.
We are counting on the solidarity of women all over the world to be able to move forward the liberation of Portuguese women. As journalists, we count on your solidarity to be able to continue to denounce prejudices and crimes which burden the condition of women.
Lisbon, March 2, 1976.
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