The Portuguese Prime Minister, Jose Socrates, has said he would ask parliament to vote to lift a ban on abortion despite a referendum on the issue looking likely to be invalid because of low voter turnout.
Exit polls from the referendum on liberalising the abortion laws indicated that a slim majority of voters backed the proposals to give all women the right to an abortion up to the tenth week of pregnancy.
The turnout was low and the result may not be legally binding.
However in a televised speech a short time ago, Mr Socrates said his government would have to produce a law that respected the result of the referendum.
Mr Socrates had campaigned to change a ban he says leads to thousands of clandestine abortions every year and which he has called 'Portugal's most shameful wound'.
The campaign had pitted Catholics in one of Europe's most conservative countries against young urban liberals who had hoped to put their country on a par with most other European nations that allow abortions.
If the ban remains in place, Portugal will continue to stand alongside a small group of European countries - Malta, Ireland and Poland - that ban abortions.
