The liberalization of abortion rights was a major election promise made by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. But the issue is controversial and there are major hurdles to a new law.
Polish women had to wait a long time for this day. Some four months after the center-left coalition under Donald Tusk took office, the liberalization of abortion was finally on the agenda for the Sejm, the country’s lower house of parliament. The debate was fierce.
“Old men in suits will no longer decide what women must do with their bodies,” shouted Anna Maria Zukowska, a member of parliament for the co-governing The Left alliance, at the presentation of the bill on Friday. “No more hell for women!”
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Abortion regulations in the traditionally Catholic nation are among the most restrictive in Europe. The procedure is permitted only if the life or health of the mother is at risk, or in cases of rape or incest. In recent years, several women have died because doctors refused to perform an abortion or have done so too late for fear of criminal prosecution.
Tusk had promised a quick remedy during his election campaign, but soon after forming the government clear differences emerged between the left-wing and Christian-conservative forces in his three-party coalition.
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This is the best summary I could come up with:
Some four months after the center-left coalition under Donald Tusk took office, the liberalization of abortion was finally on the agenda for the Sejm, the country’s lower house of parliament.
“Old men in suits will no longer decide what women must do with their bodies,” shouted Anna Maria Zukowska, a member of parliament for the co-governing The Left alliance, at the presentation of the bill on Friday.
Tusk had promised a quick remedy during his election campaign, but soon after forming the government clear differences emerged between the left-wing and Christian-conservative forces in his three-party coalition.
The Third Way, on the other hand, would like to return to the old compromise of 1993, which allowed abortion even in the case of fetal abnormalities, though it was later removed by the Constitutional Tribunal in 2020 at the suggestion of the national-conservative Law and Justice party (PiS).
Conservative lawmaker Dariusz Matecki entered the chamber with a banner depicting a 10-week-old fetus and played sounds meant to represent the heartbeat of the unborn child.
It’s certain that President Andrzej Duda will block any attempt to soften the abortion ban with his veto, and the coalition lacks the necessary three-fifths majority to overrule the arch-conservative head of state.
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