Abortion in Portugal
Abortion laws in Portugal were liberalized on April 10, 2007, allowing an elective abortion to be provided if a woman's pregnancy has not exceeded its tenth week. There is a three-day waiting period for abortions. President Aníbal Cavaco Silva ratified the law allowing abortion, recommending nevertheless that measures should be taken to ensure abortion is the last resort. Despite the liberalization of the laws, as of a 2011 survey, many doctors were refusing to perform abortionswhich they are allowed to do under a conscientious objection clause. Abortions at later stages are allowed for specific reasons, such as risk to woman's health reasons, rape and other sexual crimes, or fetal malformation; with restrictions increasing gradually at 12, 16 and 24 weeks. History and progression of legislation Laws previous to the carnation revolution Abortion was established as illegal in Sebastian of Portugal's Regimento de Quadrilheiros (1570), during the Aviz dynasty period. This law was then transposed, with little change, to Philip I of Portugal's Ordenações Filipinas, during the Iberian Union period. During the Constitutional Monarchy, the article 358 of the Penal Code of Portugal (1852) defined and prohibited abortion, which was punished with time in prison and considered, as a mitigating factor,