Chegi President André Ventura spoke out this Wednesday against a new referendum on abortion and a possible return to the criminalization of voluntary termination of pregnancy, arguing that this is not a priority for the country at the moment.
“As long as I am President of Chega, I understand that we should not return to the criminalization of abortion,” said André Ventura, pointing out that “the party will not again propose the criminalization of abortion and, therefore, will not rejoin the referendum on about this.”
Andre Ventura was speaking to reporters upon his arrival at a lunch/rally in Viana do Castelo when he was asked about the position of CDS-PP Vice President Paulo Nuncio, who defended holding a new referendum on voluntary termination of pregnancy.
President Chegi believes that “at the moment society is in a position”, “re-criminalizing abortion” is not a priority.
“And I think that would not be a positive step, given so many problems that we have to solve at the moment,” he said.
Andre Ventura noted that this is his personal position and admitted that “many in the party understand differently.”
“I am against returning to the criminalization of voluntary termination of pregnancy. As long as I am president, Chega will not promote a return to a law that no longer works and which, in my opinion, does not solve the problems,” he said.
The Chegi leader noted that this is the position he has “always occupied” and that “today he would not like to say anything different.”
CDS-PP Vice-President Paulo Nuncio, candidate for the Lisbon constituency on the AD list, defended the holding of a new referendum on voluntary termination of pregnancy (IVG) in a debate organized by the Portuguese Federation for Lifelong Pregnancy. , this Wednesday on Radio Renascença, the Portuguese Catholic broadcaster.
“We must be able to take initiatives to restrict access to abortion and try to call a new referendum as soon as possible to repeal this law, which is a deeply unjust law,” he said.
Paulo Nuncio argued that “once the liberalization of abortion has been approved by a referendum – although not binding, but of political significance – it is very difficult to repeal a law approved by parliament.”
In the first referendum in 1998, “no” to the decriminalization of IVG administered at the request of a woman in the first ten weeks of pregnancy received 50.91% of the vote. In the second referendum in 2007, the vote in favor received 59.25%.
Meanwhile, CDS-PP president Nuno Melo stressed that a new referendum on abortion in Portugal is not included in the Democratic Alliance coalition agreement, rejecting that it is “a topic for the next legislature.”
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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