A campaign of protests against the detention of the three Marias was discussed at the first International Feminist Planning Conference, sponsored by the National Organization for Women, held in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in June 1973. Protests were held on the date the trial of the three Marias was scheduled to begin, July 3, 1973, in the US, France, Italy, England, Belgium, Finland and Japan, as well as in Portugal and Brazil. The proceedings were suspended several times, and further protests were held at the time of hearings in October 1973 and in January and February 1974. Following the coup of April 25, 1974 which ended the dictatorship of Marcelo Caetano, the trial was terminated and the authors pardoned, with the judge declaring the book "of outstanding literary merit".