By Axel Bugge

LISBON (Reuters) - Portuguese voted on Sunday on whether to legalize abortion in a referendum that could bring the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country closer into line with most other European states.

Opinion poll"" >

 
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1:05PM EST, Sun 11 Feb 2007
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Portugal votes on legalizing abortion

Sun Feb 11, 2007 11:53AM EST
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By Axel Bugge

LISBON (Reuters) - Portuguese voted on Sunday on whether to legalize abortion in a referendum that could bring the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country closer into line with most other European states.

Opinion polls showed a majority of voters in favor of making abortion legal in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. But rain swept the country, raising the possibility of a low turnout that could make the ballot invalid.

""The 'Yes' is surely going to win, I have no doubts about that,"" said Rui Oliveira Costa, a pollster from Eurosondagem, adding that turnout would depend on the weather.

Portugal is among a small group of European countries, including Ireland and Poland, that still ban most abortions. It allows pregnancies to be terminated only in cases of rape, a deformed fetus or if the woman's health is at risk.

If the turnout is below 50 percent the vote will be invalid, as was the case in a similar referendum in 1998 when only 32 percent of the electorate voted.

Devout Catholics at the Sanctuary of Fatima north of Lisbon, where the Virgin Mary was reported to have appeared six times to three shepherd children in 1917, prayed for the unborn child. ""Born by God's will,"" read large posters with pictures of babies in front of the shrine.

""We voted for life, which is our duty,"" said a nun as she left a polling booth near Fatima, Portugal's main Catholic site.  Continued...

 

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