Victims of Intimate Partner Violence. The Physician’s Intervention in the Portuguese National Health Service

This study intends to characterize the current situation in Portugal regarding intimate partner violence (IPV) disclosure by the victims and its detection and report by the National Health Service (NHS) professionals, in order to promote the health and protection of the former. We interviewed 101 adult victims of IPV who sought care in the NHS. The results reveal that a relevant number of victims did not disclose the abuse to NHS physicians (18.8 %). According to the victims, in 57.9 % of the cases, physicians did not suspect IPV. In cases where there actually was suspicion (based on specific evidence and markers) or where there was no concealment of such type of violence, 52.3 % of the physicians did not inform the victims about the risks this situation posed to them, 89.8 % did not mention their obligation to denounce the case (as it is foreseen by the Portuguese law), and the number of injuries they described was lower than the one described in the forensic medical reports.     

The new regulation of abortion in Spain

The enactment of Law 2/2010 on Sexual and Reproductive Health and on Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy represents a radical change in the regulation of abortion in Spain. The law moves from the medical indication model that has been in place since 1985 (which established certain cases in which abortion was legal) towards a time-limit model that, with some exceptions, allows free abortion during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy. Along with the hot debate that this fundamental change has caused, other features of the law have also arisen as a source of conflict, including the regulation of the informed consent of underage women for having an abortion and the rules regarding the conscientious objection by healthcare professionals.