page_title: 1998 Portuguese abortion referendum
section_title: Results
hierarchical_section_title: 1998 Portuguese abortion referendum / Results
caption_attribution_description: English: en:Category:Abortion maps
context_page_description: On 28 June 1998 a referendum on a new abortion law was conducted in Portugal; it was the second national referendum in the Portuguese history and the first after the 1974 Carnation Revolution. The law was proposed by the Portuguese Communist Party and it decriminalized abortion during the first ten weeks of pregnancy and was considered by the left as the only way to put an end to the estimated 20 to 50 thousand illegal abortions in the country. The law was approved in the Assembly of the Republic through a majority of the center-left and left-wing parties, but an agreement between the Socialist Party and the Social Democratic Party parties leaders led to the referendum.
  The referendum was held on a summer day, which is said to have contributed to the fact that the turnout was so low that it didn't pass the threshold of 50 percent of the voters needed to make the decision binding, although the winning answer, NO, was respected and the law wasn't changed, meaning abortion was only allowed in exceptional case. In the following years, a few dozen women were defendants in three trials for abortion.
caption: Most voted answer per district (Azores and Madeira not shown).
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