By Neil the Ethical Werewolf Via Lindsay, Portugal's referendum to legalize abortion until the 10th week of pregnancy was just approved by 59% of voters. While turnout was too low for the referendum to be binding -- you need 50% of the population to vote, and only 40% did -- Prime Minister Jose Socrates is interested in passing abortion legalization through the legislature. Trends in Portugal are positive for abortion legalization, with a similar referendum 9 years ago having lost 51-49 with even lower turnout. I had a post planned on how the author of this article uncritically takes the views of someone associated with the American Center for Law & Justice seriously on abortion laws in Europe. The ACLJ is a right-wing pressure group that opposes abortion rights and tries to keep Ten-Commandments-related monuments up in public places. But as it turns out, the article is at right-wing site CNSnews, so I suppose that's par for the course.
