Last month, CDS-PP introduced a bill aimed at repealing Law 33/2025, which has been in effect since March 31, arguing that the concept of obstetric violence “is not aligned with the standards followed in other European Union countries.”
On Friday, the PSD also proposed legislation in the same vein, suggesting that the current law’s concept is “excessively broad and undesirably vague” and its implementation “could lead to the creation of an unacceptable stigma on doctors and health professionals, even promoting undesirable and dangerous defensive medical practices.”
João Almeida, a CDS-PP deputy, clarified to Lusa that this is a law “disconnected from reality, because it introduces a concept that does not exist” and “is not scientifically defined.”
“It creates two types of problems: one is the lack of uniformity in interpretation, and the other is excessive intervention among doctors,” added João Almeida, whose party also mentioned in the bill that the current legislation “does not protect women or their children” and could hinder birth rates.
The second article of the law, passed against the votes of PSD and CDS-PP, considers obstetric violence as physical and verbal acts by health professionals based on dehumanized behavior, over-medicalization, or “pathologization of natural processes, disregarding the protection regime,” from preconception to childbirth.
This law also established a legal framework for episiotomy, an incision made to facilitate childbirth, promoting its eradication.
According to the text published in the Diário da República, the routine performance of episiotomies “and other unjustified repeated practices” could result in disciplinary inquiries against health professionals or in penalties in hospital funding.
The PSD argued that the creation of the legal framework for episiotomies “undermines and degrades the necessary and essential autonomy of health professionals responsible for clinical decisions.”
Both the PSD and CDS-PP further contended that the current law lacked sufficient participation from the scientific community and representative entities of health professionals.
