Lisbon, Portugal - "Abominable crime", "variation of capital punishment", "attack on civilisation", "deliberate murder": these are the cries of the Portuguese Church as it calls its faithful to stand up against abortion.
Predominantly Roman Catholic Portugal has one of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe, but voters on February 11 will have the opportunity to legalise abortion for all women until the 10th week of pregnancy.
With three weeks to go till the vote and polls predicting 60 percent "for" the decriminalisation moves, the Church is hoping to prick the consciences of the more than 80 percent of Portuguese who call themselves Catholic.
The Episcopal Conference officially says it seeks to "serenely enlighten consciences" on "the defence of life from conception until death" and has asked clergy not to sermonise on the subject to avoid joining the "political circus".
But religious and Catholic groups are free to go ahead with their campaigns and some parishioners have even been threatened with "automatic excommunication" if they vote in favour of the changes.
The Catholic Family group unashamedly uses Portugal's association with the Virgin Mary -- she is said to have appeared in 1917 at the Fatima shrine, north of Lisbon, to three shepherd children -- to encourage "no" votes.
"The Virgin cries for the thousands of innocents who lose their lives before even their first wail," the group says in a leaflet distributed to two million people through their letter-boxes.
"Say that you do not agree with the brutal killing of innocents in the stomachs of their mothers. It's the answer that the Virgin (Mary) is waiting for from you," adds the leaflet, complete with a picture of a crying Madonna.
Canon Tarcissio Fernandes Alves, who administers the Castelo de Vide parish, some 300 kilometres (180 miles) east of Lisbon, goes even further.
"Christians who vote 'yes' expose themselves automatically to an excommunication," threatens his parish bulletin.
"Those who abstain from the vote are committing the very greatest of mortal sins which will forbid them from mass" and from a religious burial, continues his decree, yet to be contradicted by the Church hierarchy.
Last week the Lisbon Patriarch, Cardinal Jose da Cruz Policarpo, said there could be no doubt as to when life begins since embryos already contain the genetic code that is the blueprint for human development.
"A law that allows the destruction of human life is an attack on civilization, a worrying sign of a deviation from a series of ethical values that are the basis of humanist societies," his published text called "Referendum: yes or no" said.
The motivation behind abortions "ranged from the selfish attitude of someone who is not willing to embrace the difficulties of raising a child, to fear of those difficulties and the pressure so often placed by the father of the child and the environment that surrounds the woman," Policarpo said in a new text published Wednesday.
In the traditionally conservative north, the bishop of Guarda called abortion an "abominable crime", while in Braganca, bishop Antonio Moreira Montes compared it to the hanging of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
"Everyone was horrified by Saddam's execution. Abortion is a variation of capital punishment," Montes said on the sidelines of a meeting with priests from his diocese called to discuss the upcoming referendum.
In Fatima, twelve large posters face the basilica urging "respect for creation".
"Induced abortion is a deliberate and direct murder of a human being in the initial phase of its existence which lasts from conception until death," one poster says under a photograph of a foetus.
"Do not be frightened and do not be ashamed of being the champions of love for all forms of human life," bishop Antonio Marto told his congregation last Saturday, urging a "jolt and mobilisation of consciences".
Abortion is currently allowed in the nation of just over 10 million people only until the 12th week of pregnancy in cases of rape, a malformed foetus or if the woman's life is in danger.
Women can be jailed for up to three years for having an illegal abortion, but trials in recent years have generally ended in acquittals or suspended sentences.
In a referendum held in 1998 voters upheld the existing abortion law by 51 percent to 49 percent, but the result was declared void as nearly seven out of 10 voters stayed away.