LISBON, Aug 25 (AFP) - Portuguese authorities said Wednesday that appropriate measures would be taken to ensure that a Dutch floating abortion clinic due to arrive in the country over the weekend abides by the law.
The ship, which set sail from the Netherlands on Monday, is to arrive at an unspecified location in Portugal on Sunday where it will stay for two weeks in an effort to stir debate over restrictive abortion laws in the staunchly Roman Catholic country.
On board, a doctor, a gynecologist and a nurse will offer information on abortion, AIDS and birth control, and will hand out abortion pills to women less than six and a half weeks pregnant who wish to terminate their pregnancies.
A Portuguese defence ministry source told national news agency Lusa the ministry "has been following since the first minutes the alleged intention of the so-called abortion boat to pass through Portuguese waters and dock at a national port".
"The state does not react to publicity stunts but it will act promptly, adequately and proportionately, if and when it has to act, to ensure the respect of national sovereignty and international maritime rights," the unnamed source added.
Abortion is banned in Portugal except when the mother`s life is in danger or in certain specified conditions, such as the risk of damage to physical or mental health, sexual violence or possible congenital deformity.
To get around Portuguese law, the Dutch volunteers will only distribute pills which induce abortion once the ship is outside of Portugal`s territorial waters where Dutch laws will apply to the vessel.
The floating clinic is not allowed to perform medical abortions.
The four Portuguese pro-abortion groups which invited the ship to come to Portugal have said the vessel has been authorized to moor at several undisclosed ports.
Rebecca Gomperts, the doctor who founded the Women on Waves Foundation which manages the clinic five years ago, said the organization will respect Portuguese laws.
"There is no reason to impede our entry in the country. The ship, by itself, does not cause disturbances. If they exist they will come from outside," she told daily Portuguese newspaper Diario de Noticias.
The ship has visited two other Roman Catholic European nations with stringent abortion laws in the past: Ireland in 2001 and Poland two years later.
In Poland anti-abortion protestors threw eggs at the ship and Women on Waves expects protests as well in Portugal, where women are periodically put on trial in the country for having an unwanted pregnancy terminated at backstreet clinics.
Family planning agencies estimate between 20,000 and 40,000 illegal abortions are carried out in Portugal each year, causing a handful of deaths.
In March Portugal`s centre-right government used its slim majority in parliament to vote down proposals by left-wing parties which would ease access to abortion.
The ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD) has given its junior coalition partner the Popular Party assurances that it will not modify the law nor call a referendum on the question before the end of its mandate in 2006.
Defence Minister Paulo Portas is the head of the Popular Party.