Monday, June 16, 2025

Speech Is Free as Long as It Doesn’t Offend

Portugal’s Anti-Abortion Ad: Speech Is Free as Long as It Doesn’t Offend

It isn’t just about abortion, it is about the people’s right to express their opposition to it.

Anyone who had for a moment believed that the hydra of wokery had been tamed and the authoritarian Left defeated should probably look at what has been happening in Portugal these past few days. A true media firestorm has been raging since right-wing entrepreneur Miguel Milhão, founder and CEO of sports nutrition corporation Prozis, launched a bold television advertisement campaign opposing abortion. The ad, aired on TVI and other major Portuguese channels, has provoked outrage from pro-abortion activists, who have flooded media watchdog Entidade Reguladora para a Comunicação Social (ERC) with complaints demanding it be immediately taken off the air.

The ad itself, titled ‘Obrigado, Mãe’—Portuguese for ‘Thanks, Mom’—depicts a young woman in an operating room, poised to undergo an abortion. Milhão explained it as an artistic tribute to his mother, who, as a young woman of only 19, bravely refused to abort Miguel. But ultimately, the ad is a harrowing condemnation of abortion and its main enabler, the Portuguese state. Pro-abortion groups, such as Associação Escolha, have predictably decried it as an ‘attack on individual freedom’ and a violation of broadcasting laws, arguing that it promotes a political stance unfit for public airwaves. Their response—demanding the ad’s removal—however, betrays a profound, authoritarian intolerance of dissenting voices: the crude refusal to allow an alternative point of view in a debate they consider settled. This isn’t a mere disagreement over the issue of abortion; it is a battle over whether Portugal’s public square can still tolerate ideas that reject the progressive consensus of the day. It isn’t just abortion that is at stake here: it is the people’s right to express their opposition to it. There can be no compromise over that principle: relinquishing it, after all, would be to accept a dictatorship built over the dogmas of the Left.

Freedom of speech, the cornerstone of any free society, is under siege when a paid advertisement faces calls for censorship simply because it offends. Milhão’s ad, however provocative, breaks no law. To silence it is to admit that only one side of the abortion debate has the right to be heard—a dangerous precedent that erodes the pluralism Portugal claims to uphold. The irony speaks for itself: those who champion ‘choice’ seek to deny Milhão the choice to speak his mind and do as, morally, he believes he must. But the businessman fought back with a combination of humour and style: ‘Want to censor the guru’s artistic productions? 25 de abril, always!’, he wrote, provokingly making reference to Portugal’s 1974 democratic—and left-wing inspired—revolution.

But what this controversy really does is reiterate the social and political responsibility of conservative businessmen like Milhão. In a time in which corporate elites so often bow to cultural pressures—or, worse still, are themselves the epicenter of progressive activism—Milhão’s stand is a rare occasion of genuine courage. Prozis, a global brand exporting 85% of its products, could have remained silent, its founder cloaked in the safety of neutrality. Doing so would have certainly spared him plenty of trouble, from the threat of embargoes to the silly denunciations of social media influencers who had, until recently, worked for the brand. Instead, Milhão chose to wield his platform and resources to provoke reflection on a moral issue of paramount importance.

The backlash reveals the cost of conviction and fortitude. But there’s always been a price involved in fighting the good fight. Milhão’s remarkable moral courage, declaring himself ‘uncancellable’ back in 2022, at a time of similar controversy, shows a deep sense of collective duty—and that, collective duty, is the ultimate meaning of patriotism. Indeed, conservative entrepreneurs should learn from his example and put their resources and visibility in the service of conviction far more often. These are decisive days we’re living. They’re hardly compatible with pusillanimity.

Rafael Pinto Borges is the founder and chairman of Nova Portugalidade, a Lisbon-based, conservative and patriotically-minded think tank. A political scientist and a historian, he has written on numerous national and international publications. You may find him on X as @rpintoborges.