On 11-12 February, IPPF Portuguese Member Association, APF held a Seminar titled Best Practices on Abortion; an initiative aimed to promote and contribute to the debate over technical issues related to the voluntary interruption of pregnancy in Portugal and in Europe. This seminar is one of the activities of the IPPF Innovation Fund project "Opções". The first day of the Seminar coincided with the second anniversary of the Abortion Referendum in Portugal (11 February 2007), resulting in a liberalized abortion legislation.

The meeting was attended by 180 health professionals, in the majority involved in legal abortion services in different regions of Portugal. Participants at the Seminar included IPPF EN focal point on Abortion, Lena Luyckfasseel; Ann Furedi, CEO of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) and Marge Berer, Editor of Reproductive Health Matters.

The programme included the presentation of the results of a recent survey on "Health Professionals’ perception on Abortion" as well as the research study: "Women perception on Abortion", based on 450 stories of women having used the Portuguese Help Line "Opções" on abortion. The presentations are available in Portuguese but APF intends to summarize both studies soon so to make them also available in English.