{"id":2616,"date":"2007-03-11T22:56:27","date_gmt":"2007-03-11T22:56:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2007\/03\/so-goes-portugal.html"},"modified":"2007-03-11T22:56:27","modified_gmt":"2007-03-11T22:56:27","slug":"so-goes-portugal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/03\/so-goes-portugal.html","title":{"rendered":"So goes Portugal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tragic:<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\n

Portugal’s parliament approved a bill allowing abortions until the 10th week of pregnancy, after a referendum on easing restrictions on the procedure was nullified because of low turnout.<\/p>\n

Currently, abortions in the mostly Catholic country are allowed in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy only if a woman’s health is at risk. In cases of rape it is permitted until the 16th week, and there are no time limits if the procedure is the only way of saving a pregnant woman’s life.<\/p>\n

In a referendum last month, nearly 60 percent of voters supported an easing of the country’s tight abortion laws. The vote was nullified because of low turnout, but Prime Minister Jose Socrates, whose Socialist government holds a parliamentary majority, said he would take the bill to parliament.<\/p>\n

The bill, voted on in parliament Thursday evening, foresees a mandatory three-day reflection period before a woman can choose to terminate her pregnancy. It passed with votes from the Socialists, the Left Bloc, and the Communist and Green parties. Right-wing Christian Democrats opposed it.<\/p>\n

The bill is now subject to presidential ratification in the next 20 days but becomes law only after published, a process that could take several months.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And waiting in the wings:<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\n

Lisbon, Feb. 13, 2007 (CWNews.com) – Following a national referendum that showed public support for legal abortion, entrepreneurs in Portugal have unveiled plans for a massive 3-story, $3.5-million abortion clinic in the heart of downtown Lisbon. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tragic: Portugal’s parliament approved a bill allowing abortions until the 10th week of pregnancy, after a referendum on easing restrictions on the procedure was nullified because of low turnout. Currently, abortions in the mostly Catholic country are allowed in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy only if a woman’s health is at risk. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2616\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}