Portugal headed to the polls yesterday for a second referendum in less than a decade on its abortion law, one of Europe's strictest, with surveys indicating voters would back legalization.
Between 52 and 62 percent of voters said they backed a government proposal that abortion be legal for all women until the 10th week of pregnancy, five polls published in national newspapers on Friday said.
But the surveys suggested the abstention rate could run as high as 45 percent which, pollsters cautioned, makes it hard to predict the outcome.
More than half of Portugal's registered voters need to cast ballots for the results of a referendum to be binding.
If low turnout voids the outcome of the referendum but the "yes" camp collects more votes than the "no" side, the Socialist government has said it will use its majority in parliament to alter the abortion law.
Abortion is currently allowed in the predominantly Catholic country only until the 12th week of pregnancy in cases of rape, a malformed fetus or if the woman's well-being is in danger.
Within the 27-nation EU only Ireland, Malta and Poland have abortion laws that are similar or even more restrictive.
In a referendum held in 1998 voters supported upholding the existing abortion law by 51 percent to 49 percent, but the result was declared void as nearly seven out of 10 voters stayed away.
Opposition to changes to the law has been led by the influential Catholic Church, which has argued the government should do more to help women to have children.
Portugal's top cleric, Cardinal Jose da Cruz Policarpo, has said repeatedly that Catholics must oppose abortion.
But in recent years several trials of women charged with illegally terminating their pregnancies have generated widespread public sympathy that may boost support for liberalization.
Women can be jailed for up to three years for having an illegal abortion while those who perform them face up to eight years behind bars.
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
DELA ROSA CASE: The whereabouts of the senator, who is wanted by the ICC, was unclear, while President Marcos faces a political test over the senate situation Philippine authorities yesterday were seeking confirmation of reports that a top politician wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had fled, a day after gunfire rang out at the Philippine Senate where he had taken refuge fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. “Several sources confirmed that the senator, Senator Bato, is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential
HELP DENIED? The US Department of State said that the Cuban leadership refuses to allow the US to provide aid to Cubans, ‘who are in desperate need of assistance’ US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said that Cuba’s leadership must change, as Washington renewed an offer of US$100 million in aid if the communist nation agrees to cooperate. Cuba has been suffering severe economic tumult led by an energy shortage that plunged 65 percent of the country into darkness on Tuesday. Cuba’s leaders have blamed US sanctions, but Rubio, a Cuban American and critic of the government established by Fidel Castro, said the system was to blame, including corruption by the military. “It’s a broken, nonfunctional economy, and it’s impossible to change it. I wish it were different,” he told
Myanmar yesterday published a parliamentary bill proposing the death sentence for those who detain or violently coerce people into working in online scam centers. Internet fraud factories have flourished in Myanmar, part of Southeast Asia’s scam economy, targeting Internet users worldwide with romance and cryptocurrency investment cons. The multibillion-dollar black market attracts many willing employees, but repatriated foreigners have also reported being trafficked to sites in Myanmar and tortured by scam center operators. The draft legislation would allow capital punishment for “violence, torture, unlawful arrest and detention, or cruel treatment against another person for the purpose of forcing them to commit online scams.” The
RSS