Portuguese court jails nurse for abortions

Three judges in an improvised court in the sports hall of a small Portuguese village sentenced a nurse to eight and a half years in jail for illegal abortions.

Three judges in an improvised court in the sports hall of a small Portuguese village sentenced a nurse to eight and a half years in jail for illegal abortions. The verdict in the first mass abortion trial in Europe for decades was instantly condemned as showing up the hypocrisy of Portugal, which after the Republic of Ireland has the most restrictive abortion laws in the European Union.

Seventeen women had been put on trial charged with having abortions at the nurse's home. Of those, charges were dropped against one, another had her four-month prison term commuted to a €120 (£74) fine, and the remaining 15 were acquitted for lack of evidence.

None of the accused women was named until yesterday, except Maria do Ceu Ribeiro, the nurse who works at a hospital near the village of Maia, near Oporto. She was also convicted of forging documents, fraud and narcotics trafficking.

A total of 49 people were accused in a trial that has aroused international condemnation during four months of virtually clandestine proceedings.

The municipal sports hall in Maia had to be commandeered as a makeshift court room to accommodate all the accused. Other defendants included local taxi drivers, doctors and pharmacists accused of helping Ms Ribeiro to organise an illegal abortion ring. Six were sentenced to up to five months in prison or fines of up to €1,000 for referring women to Ms Ribeiro or offering them transport; 25 were acquitted of minor charges.

After the trial defendants and lawyers slipped rapidly away, without speaking.

Abortion is illegal in Portugal except in cases of malformation of the foetus, rape or serious risk to the physical and psychological health of the woman. It can be performed only in government-authorised clinics, and poorer women, like most of those who were on trial, find it difficult to find a doctor to do the operation.

Yesterday's verdict was condemned as a disgrace by scores of women protesting outside the courtroom. Others carried bunches of yellow chrysanthemums – the flowers of death in these parts.

Among the protesters were two elderly village women who wanted to show their support for Ms Ribeiro. "She carried out an abortion on my daughter, who is lucky not to be in the dock among the accused. We think she did nothing wrong," one said impassively.

Fiona Salter, of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, said she was worried that the case in Portugal was the "thin end of the wedge". She argued: "A number of countries like Australia, Germany and even Denmark are vacillating [on abortion]."

Campaigners say the law in Portugal is hypocritical, since up to 40,000 illegal abortions are performed each year, and botched abortions account for most of Portugal's maternal mortality. Official statistics show that 10,000 women are treated annually in hospital because of botched backstreet abortions, but that only 574 had a legal abortion last year.

Most of Maia's accused said they terminated their pregnancies for economic, psychological or personal reasons. One, aged 20, had four children, was a chronic asthma sufferer, unemployed, and was abandoned by her husband. Another, aged 16, lived in a caravan with her handicapped brother. Some were in such desperate straits that they paid for their operation by handing over jewellery.

The prosecution sought a 12-year sentence for Ms Ribeiro, but in a written verdict that took two hours to read, the judges said: "The court has taken into account that the accused acted to help other women."

Using Ms Ribeiro's own diaries as evidence, the prosecution said she had performed more than 100 illegal abortions over 15 years at a makeshift clinic in a back room of her house in Maia.

She was also convicted of forging medical prescriptions and illegally administering drugs, including anaesthetics, that were used in the abortions, and gaining money by illicit means.

Ermunda Nunes, of the state-funded Family Planning Association, said outside the court: "The law is wrong, it's backward. Those who can afford it go abroad and pay for a safe legal abortion. These women have been doubly made to suffer because they are poor. First because of the abortion itself, and secondly by being hauled up in court."

Ilda Figueiredo, a Portuguese MEP, said after the verdict she would continue her campaign to bring international pressure to liberalise Portugal's abortion law.

Protesters also noisily demonstrated in Lisbon, calling for President Jorge Sampaio to change the law.

Even the legal establishment admits the law should be changed. The deputy solicitor general, Eduardo Costa, said: "Our law is out of step with the real situation, and with the rest of Europe."