Portugal has introduced a new law that will allow women to have an abortion up to the 10th week of pregnancy. However the new law has also imposed a three-day reflection period in which women will have to seek the procedure and grant doctors’ right to opt on moral grounds. The law will become effective from July 15. It is estimated that around 10,000 women in most of the Roman Catholic countries are hospitalized every year with complications arising from failed, illegal abortions. Portugal had rigid restrictions on abortion as compared to its neighboring countries but with the implementation of the new law Portugal will stand together with most of its European neighbors. For the law the Health Ministry had to really work hard and had spent months drawing up medical guidelines annexed to the law. As per the new law now the woman who wish to seek abortion will have a meeting with the concerned doctors, where she will be warned of all the possibilities of danger due to the abortion. After a three-day reflection period she can either get the abortion done free of cost at a public hospital or go to a licensed private clinic. After all the medical procedures she must visit a family planning session to get informed about contraception methods. The doctors are also given freedom to accept or reject the abortion cases and on unavailability of the doctor the hospital will have to give a woman access to a doctor elsewhere. In the previous law the women could undergo abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy only if her health was at risk and in rape case she was granted through the 16th week. On the other side if there was a case in which it was the only solution left to save the mother then there no time restriction. The government hopes that the new law will put an end to risky backstreet abortions . Image Source: Yahoo