Prime Minister Pedro Santana Lopes has ruled out halting prosecutions of women who break Portugal's tough abortion laws, which only allow the procedure in cases involving rape or where there are serious health concerns.
"Suspending prosecutions would amount to changing the law, and we can't change the law," he said late Tuesday in an interview with state television RTP.
Earlier this month the Communist Party tabled a bill which would suspend all criminal proceedings against those charged with breaking the laws restricting abortion until changes to the existing legislation are made.
The proposal swiftly received the backing of the main opposition Socialist Party as well as the support of a handful of members of parliament of the ruling centre-right Social Democrats.
Polls show a strong majority of Portuguese are in favour of a loosening of the nation's abortion laws.
But the Social Democrats have given their junior coalition partner, the right-wing Popular Party, assurances they would not modify the law nor call a referendum on the question before the end of their mandate in 2006.
Despite increased popular support for a change in the law, the leader of the Popular Party has stood firm in his opposition to any easing of the rules surrounding abortion.
"We consider that the Portuguese law, which establishes the right to life and which allows that abortion not be punished in certain very specific situations, is not only reasonable but has been ratified in a referendum," Paulo Portas told reporters Saturday.
In a 1998 referendum, which suffered from low turnout, voters in the staunchly Roman Catholic country narrowly rejected by 51 percent to 49 percent a proposed new law that would have allowed abortion on demand in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy.
Portugal's abortion laws are amongst the strictest in Europe.
Women convicted of having abortions face jail sentences of up to three years, while those convicted of carrying out the procedure face up to eight years behind bars.
The number of clandestine abortions annually in Portugal is reckoned at between about 20,000 and 40,000, while thousands more go abroad to terminate unwanted pregnancies.