Catholic church fights to keep its grip as Portugal votes on legalising abortion - by Giles Tremlett
The waiting room at Los Arcos, an abortion clinic in the Spanish border city of Badajoz, was overflowing with women, their faces grim as they awaited their turn to see a difficult decision through to its end. Although this is Spain, the language spoken in hushed tones here, and by the handful of nervous young men usually hanging about outside, is Portuguese. For this is Portugal's biggest abortion clinic, handling some 4,000 women a year fleeing from a conservative country where their only chance of terminating a pregnancy is in illegal clinics and under the threat of a three-year jail sentence.
This Sunday, Portuguese voters have a chance to strike down one of Europe's harshest abortion laws at a referendum on a proposal for abortion on demand during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. The outcome is difficult to predict in a country where more than 90% of people still declare themselves to be Catholic but only a third are regular churchgoers. Polls show a majority in favour of changing the law, but the younger people who want change are the least likely to vote.
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