LISBON - Portugal's parliament yesterday rejected a left-wing bid to liberalise abortion, with a law that would have allowed pregnancies to be terminated on demand in the first 12 weeks.
Parliament turned down proposals by the small Communist Party and the Young Socialists, affiliated to the ruling Socialists, that would have swept away all restrictions to abortion in the first three months of pregnancy.
A third bill, extending the period in which abortions can be carried out in cases of a deformed foetus to 24 weeks from the present 16, was approved.