An inquiry found systemic abuses like child trafficking, lack of record-keeping and government complicity until 1998. Practices have since improved, the government said, but not enough.
The country’s bishops criticized both the content and the timing of the bill.
In 2020, the Subcommittee on Aid to the Church in Central and Eastern Europe awarded $6.1 million in funding for 323 projects in 25 countries.
Its scope is ever-widening and the safeguards are failing.
Portugal’s Constitution states that human life is “sacrosanct,” though abortion has been legal in the country since 2007.
