Disponíveis desde 31 de Janeiro, as cartas ao director da Economist já estão "online". A última, a repor a verdade:
"Sir -
Your article ("A Painful Choice", Feb 10th 2007) contains two inaccuracies that reveal rushed research, quite unusual for such a reputable and respected publication, I am sure. First, you describe Portugal as one of “Europe’s most conservative, religious and rural countries”. That might have been true in 1970. Maybe it is time one of your correspondents made a visit? The Communist Party and the “left block” party (Marxist left) consistently win more votes than Portugal's CDS/PP, a prominent, moderately conservative, centre-right party. The share of agriculture, forestry and fishing combined in the country's GDP is below 7%, a very small figure for the world’s biggest cork exporter that at the same time has a sizeable production of wine, olive oil and paper pulp. The service sector accounts for over 60% of GDP. On the religious front, church attendance is at an all time low, with less than 20% of those polled claiming to attend mass regularly.
Second, you claim that in Spain the abortion law is “somewhat more liberal”. It isn’t. It is almost identical to Portugal's, the real difference being the way doctors interpret it. Whereas in Spain most doctors will claim serious psychological harm to the mother in order to perform legal abortions, invoking an identical clause in Portugal's and Spain's abortion laws, most doctors in Portugal take a different view.
Francisco da Cunha e Távora"
