Last month, the CDS-PP introduced a bill to repeal Law 33/2025, effective since March 31, citing the concept of obstetric violence “is not in line with the standards followed in other European Union countries.”
Last Friday, the PSD submitted a bill with a similar aim, arguing that the current law’s concept is “excessively broad and undesirably vague” and its implementation “could lead to an unacceptable stigma on doctors and health professionals, even encouraging undesirable and dangerous defensive medical practices.”
CDS-PP lawmaker João Almeida explained that this law is “detached from reality because it introduces a concept that does not exist” and that it is “not scientifically defined.”
“It creates two types of problems: one is the lack of uniformity in interpretation, and the other is excessive intervention with doctors,” added João Almeida, whose party also stated that the current law “does not protect women or their children” and could be a barrier to birth rates.
The second article of the law, passed despite opposition from PSD and CDS-PP, defines obstetric violence as physical and verbal actions by health professionals based on dehumanized behavior, over-medicalization, or “pathologizing natural processes, disrespecting the protection regime,” from preconception to birth.
This law also facilitated the establishment of a legal framework for episiotomies, a procedure to aid childbirth, promoting its eradication.
According to the legislation 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 financial penalties for hospitals.
The PSD argued that the legal framework for performing episiotomies “compromises and degrades the necessary and essential autonomy of health professionals responsible for clinical decisions.”
Both the PSD and CDS-PP also stated that the current law lacked the necessary input from the scientific community and representative entities of health professionals.
