Portugal Is European Country with Fewest Abortions

The Portugal News Online (Sept. 14, 2017): Portugal Is European County with Fewest Abortions:

Portugal held a national referendum in 2007 that resulted in the legalization of abortion of pregnancies of up to ten weeks.  Abortions must be performed in a facility licensed to perform the procedure.  Figures from 2015 indicate that abortions were at their lowest level in that country since 2008, the first year that they were legal.  Every year there have been fewer abortions than the year before.  Portugal's retiring health director Francisco George has cited the small percentage of abortions per 1,000 live births as evidence of the success of Portugal's abortion laws.  

Abortion used to be against the law in Portugal, a reality that resulted in grim health consequences for women in need of safe termination procedures.  George remarked that the decriminalization of abortion "has improved the health conditions for women."