The three bills defend a change in the law so that “all legal provisions relating to marriage” should be accepted “regardless of the sex of the spouses.”
MPs were due to vote on the bills before the end of the week.
In a statement sent to the press the PAN Party – Party for Animals and Nature – said that it “fully supports” the Parliamentary initiative and “urged” MPs to pass the bills, “which aim to consecrate the elimination of discrimination with regards to the adoption and civil sponsorship by couples of the same sex.”
The approval of these bills, PAN said, will “allow Portugal to take another legal step towards a society in which discrimination has no place.”
“An adult’s sexual orientation has no impact on his or her parental abilities not does it interfere with the development of children’s personalities,” PAN spokesperson André Silva stressed, recalling how in countries such as Spain, France and Holland the right to adoption by same-sex couples was acknowledged at the same time as the right to civil marriage, unlike what has happened in Portugal.
“In our country there are thousands of children in institutions. It makes no sense allowing the prejudice of some, to stop [those children] from finding a family that would welcome them,” Silva added, concluding: “Which is more important, a child or preconceptions?”
Gatherings were summoned to take place in front of Parliament on both Wednesday and Thursday by the Facebook page ‘In Favour of Co-Parent Adoption and Homosexual Adoption’, which has close to 16,500 likes.
Meanwhile, a recent survey carried out by the public opinion studies company Eurosondagem for newspaper Expresso and channel SIC, found that gay adoption is a topic that splits the country down the very middle, although a slight majority is in favour.
When asked about adoption by same-sex couples, 40.4 percent of the respondents proved to be in favour, while 39.1 percent said no. Regarding co-parent adoption, 42.2 percent were in favour, with 38 percent being against.
Again, the majority of respondents (41.5 percent) said they thought President Cavaco Silva should call a referendum on the matter, in comparison to the 40.2 percent who said he shouldn’t, while 40 percent of the population said co-parent adoption and adoption should be the subject of a referendum, with 38.3 percent having the opposite opinion.
The general opinion study was carried out by Eurosondagem earlier this month, between 6 and 12 February 2015.