PSD wants to eliminate the concept of obstetric violence in law
The PSD presented a bill to eliminate the concept of obstetric violence and parliament will discuss on Friday a proposal from the CDS to revoke the law approved in March on rights during pregnancy and childbirth.
The document presented by the Social Democrats last Friday states that the law that came into force in March of this year adopted an “excessively broad and undesirably vague” concept of obstetric violence and that its application “could result in the creation of an unacceptable stigma against doctors and health professionals, even encouraging undesirable and dangerous defensive medical practices”.
The concept of obstetric violence was defined in law 33/2025, in force since March 31. The second article considers obstetric violence to be physical and verbal acts carried out by health professionals that are based on dehumanized behavior, abuse of medicalization or “pathologization of natural processes, disrespecting the protection regime” , from preconception to birth.
This law also created a legal framework for episiotomies , an incision made to facilitate childbirth, promoting their eradication. According to the law published in the Official Gazette , the performance of “routine episiotomies and other repeated unjustified practices” could result in disciplinary investigations into health professionals or in penalties in hospital funding.
[The police are called to a house after a noise complaint. When they arrive, the officers find a wild birthday party. But the birthday boy, José Valbom, has disappeared. “O Zé faz 25” is Observador’s first fiction podcast, co-produced by Coyote Vadio and featuring the voices of Tiago Teotónio Pereira, Sara Matos, Madalena Almeida, Cristovão Campos, Vicente Wallenstein, Beatriz Godinho, José Raposo and Carla Maciel. You can listen to the 7th episode on Observador’s website , on Apple Podcasts , on Spotify and on Youtube Music . And the first episode here , the second here , the third here , the fourth here , the fifth here and the sixth here ]
Along with the elimination of the concept of obstetric violence, the PSD also considered in its bill that the creation of the legal framework for carrying out episiotomies “compromises and degrades the necessary and essential autonomy of health professionals responsible for clinical decisions” and the proposal is that this article also be revoked.
The Social Democrats also considered that the law in force — which was based on projects by the Left Bloc and the PAN and which was voted against by the PSD and the CDS — did not have the due participation of the scientific community , nor of entities representing health professionals.
Next Friday, members of the Assembly of the Republic will discuss the bill presented by the CDS, which aims to repeal the law on rights during pregnancy and childbirth . This party considers that the concept of obstetric violence “is not in line with the standards followed in other countries of the European Union” and that the current legislation “does not protect women or their children”, and could be an obstacle to birth rates.
observador
