PORTUGAL: The trial of 17 women accused of having abortions at a backstreet clinic in the northern Portuguese town of Maia ended yesterday with a prison sentence for the nurse who ran the clinic, but only one of the women found guilty.
Sandra Cardoso (21), who had tearfully pleaded that extreme poverty, the violence of her partner and sickness of her daughter had driven her to seek out the clandestine clinic in Maia three years ago, was ordered to pay a small fine or spend four months in prison.
The judges could have sentenced Cardoso to up to three years in prison. But they were not so lenient with Maria do Ceu, the nurse who ran the clinic.
She was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison. Three of those years were for breaking the notoriously strict abortion laws in this strongly Roman Catholic country. The rest were for stealing morphine and other dangerous drugs from a hospital.
Six other people who worked with her were given the option of paying fines or serving up to six months in jail.
Before handing down the sentences, the panel of three judges said: "We are aware of the political, social and scientific debates surrounding this matter, but must stick to the law."
The mass trial was held in a packed marquee at Maia's tennis club, because the town's ordinary courts were not big enough.
Supporters of the accused women had mixed reactions to the judgment. "We are glad for these women, because none of them will go to jail now," said Silvestrina Silva, of the Right to Choice group. But that does not stop it being shameful that they have been put through this trial with all the pain that involves, she said.
"The trial shows that clandestine abortions in this country are a fact, and that people are still punished for aborting in this country," she said.
Dina Nunes, a psychologist, said: "The court could have put thousands of women on trial because there are many, many more who have illegal abortions. This is the 21st century but women in Portugal still do not have the right to decide what they do with their own bodies and lives."
The court heard that women who became pregnant in Maia or nearby Oporto and did not have the money to travel to abortion clinics in Spain were told about the clandestine clinic by hospital personnel, chemists, taxi-drivers or their own friends or relatives - many of whom were also on trial yesterday.
At the clinic set up in the nurse's home, in exchange for the equivalent of $432, the pregnant women were given an injection that knocked them out for the duration of the operation.
None of the women, however, had enough money to pay the nurse the full fee.
All left items of jewellery - wedding rings, necklaces or earrings - as surety while they tried to scrape together the remaining cost.
Campaigners immediately demanded a new abortion law for Portuguese women yesterday, saying that the current law puts lives at risk and was ignored by up to 40,000 women who visited illegal clinics every year.
Ms Helena Gradim, the lawyer for one of the accused, said: "Before punishing anybody, it should be recognised once and for all that economic and social conditions push thousands of women into risking their lives by having abortions every year."
Mr Duarte Vilar, the director of Portugal's Family Planning Association, said: "Clandestine abortions have caused a number of deaths and thousands of hospital admissions.
"It is time this was treated as a matter of public health," he added.