Low Voter Turnout Makes Portuguese Abortion Referendum Moot

LIBSON, Portugal (CNS) - - Low voter turnout for a referendum on decriminalizing abortion in Portugal prompted the end of a campaign to change the law.

About 30 percent of Portugal's 8.5 million voters went to the polls June 28 to express their views on a proposal to lessen legal restrictions on abortion.

The electorate was about evenly split, but the results turned out to be moot because a referendum in Portugal is invalid if less than half of all eligible voters take part.

Current Portuguese law makes abortion a crime except in cases of rape, severe fetal malformation, or the likelihood of grave physical or mental health damage to the pregnant woman. In February, the parliament passed a bill on first reading that would let a woman have an abortion independent of those reasons, as long as it was performed in a legally authorized medical facility within the first 10 weeks of pregnancy.

Catholic Church leaders joined a number of government officials in opposing the measure. On the prompting of the Portuguese bishops' conference, the country's president called a referendum - - the first ever in Portugal's history.

The bishops' conference then announced that it would not intervene in the voting, but a few bishops made statements on the issue.

After the referendum result was announced, the bishops' conference issued a statement calling it "a victory for life" and adding that the parliament had no further reason to continue considering the bill.

The legislation had been introduced by the Young Socialists, a faction of Portugal's ruling Socialist Party. The day after the referendum, the party voted to withdraw the bill, reasoning that the legislative process should not go forward without popular support.

The Young Socialists' general secretary, Sergeo Soursapinto, said after that decision was made that he was "the only loser" in the election because he had sponsored the bill.

With the failure of the proposed legislation, Portugal remains one of a handful of European countries - - among them Ireland, Poland, and Switzerland - - in which abortion either is illegal or is permissible only for a limited range of reasons.

In Italy, where since 1978 the procedure has been allowed within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, Pope John Paul II renewed debate over abortion in late June by referring to "the injury to moral and juridical conscience" caused by legalized abortion.