Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced on Wednesday (January 24) that his government would propose legislation to liberalise the near-total ban on abortion and loosen restrictions on the “morning-after” pill.
We are ready to submit a bill to the parliament in the coming hours on legal and safe abortion up to the 12th week.
Two of the three political groups in his coalition – the Left and the Tusk-led Civic Coalition – have included liberalisation of abortion in their programmes. Both bills face an uphill struggle in parliament. Even if they are passed, there is a chance that the president will veto them.
Access to abortion, as well as in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and emergency contraception, was tightened in Poland during the eight-year rule of the Law and Justice Party.
No date for a parliamentary vote on the two proposals has been set, but women’s rights groups urge lawmakers to act on them as soon as possible. Agnieszka Czerederecka of the Women’s Strike non-profit organisation stated:
We realise that the legislative path to implementing the social demand for legal, safe, and free abortion is only just getting started.
The Tusk government’s action will result in four bills in parliament aimed at liberalising abortion, following two proposals tabled by the Left Party in November. The two previous bills were not introduced.
Currently, abortion in the predominantly Catholic country is only allowed if the pregnancy is the result of sexual abuse or incest or threatens a mother’s life or health. However, according to women’s rights groups, tens of thousands of women terminate their pregnancies at home using banned abortion pills or by travelling abroad.
Earlier on Wednesday, Tusk announced plans to also loosen restrictions on the “morning-after” pill, which the previous government released only on prescription. A proposal aimed at ensuring non-prescription access to the pill from the age of 15 would be forwarded to parliament, Tusk declared.
Since abortion assistance is outlawed in Poland, activists and doctors who help women to undergo the procedure face prison sentences. In March 2023, activist Justyna Wydrzynska was found guilty in the first such case of supplying a pregnant woman with abortion pills. She was sentenced to community service.
