Under the 1886 Portuguese Penal code, left unaltered after Angola's independence in 1975, access to abortion was very restricted, being available only in case the pregnancy threatened the woman's life.
[1] In January 2019 new legislation was passed by the National Assembly to adopt a new Penal Code.
The reform expanded the circumstances under which abortion is legal to include risk of health, rape and fetal impairments.
[2] After the President João Lourenço vetoed some provisions of the new Code and demanded tougher anti-corruption measures,[3] the National Assembly approved the final version of the new Penal Code (Law 38/20) on 4 November 2020.
The new Codes were published on the Official Gazette on 11 November 2020, thus entering into force 90 days later, on 9 February 2021.