Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who came to power in December, ending eight years of ultra-conservative PiS policies, had previously vowed to abolish the near-total ban on abortion. The decision to have an abortion should again rest with the woman, and not with “a priest, a prosecutor or a party official,” he said. As leader of a coalition government that has many ideological differences, Tusk began a tricky battle to keep his campaign promise.
The Polish parliament considered no fewer than four bills this week. The proposal from Tusk’s center-liberal Civic Coalition would guarantee access to abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, or at any time when there are serious health risks to the mother or fetus. The social democratic coalition New Left goes further and put two bills on the table: they want to legalize abortion up to the twelfth week and also want to decriminalize it. Finally, the Third Way bill, a coalition of a farmers’ party and a center-conservative party, only wants a return to the already very strict abortion policy from before 2020.
Complex lobbying
After turbulent debates, a majority of MPs on Friday approved the passage of each bill to the next stage of the legislative process. Each proposal will now be further discussed in a special committee. But the end is not yet in sight. Each bill must now be passed to move forward. It is the first time since 1996 that bills to legalize abortion have gone through a first vote in Poland. According to a recent poll, more than a third of the population supports legalization.
“This is a historic moment,” Kamila Ferenc, lawyer and director of the Federation for Women and Family Planning (Federa) wrote on . In December she told De Standaard about the two New Left bills in which she contributed and about the complex lobbying work to get all parties on the same page, including the more conservative Third Way.
Since 2020, abortion in Poland is only permitted in cases of incest, rape or if the mother’s life is in danger. It is not clear what exactly constitutes ‘danger’ as long as the fetus has a heartbeat. The ban, further tightened in 2020 by the Constitutional Court full of PiS loyalists, led to mass protests. Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets. The need for change became apparent during the parliamentary elections. For the first time in Poland’s history, more women than men voted.
Still obstacles
Thousands of women in Poland still end their pregnancies with pills that often come from abroad. Polish doctors who provide care are at risk of threats or intimidation. Out of fear of prosecution, hospitals often do not intervene in the event of complications, resulting in lives being lost. There are at least eight known cases of women who have died due to the strict abortion policy. As a result, the culture of fear is still growing, because women with wanted pregnancies are also at risk.
“The first step” has now been taken to turn the tide, says the Center for Reproductive Rights. It remains to be seen whether the next steps will follow. There are still hurdles to overcome. For example, Szymon Holownia’s conservative party Poland 2050 wants every change in the law to be submitted to a referendum. Critics reject that idea because referendums are costly and time-consuming. The fact that his party supported the four proposals was mainly “out of respect for democracy” and “concern for the sustainability of this coalition,” Holownia said.
European fundamental right
And then there is President Andrzej Duda, whose support PiS can count on until next year. Last month, Duda vetoed a bill approved by parliament that would have given women over the age of 15 access to the morning-after pill without a prescription. Before the vote, his deputy chief of staff, Piotr Cwik, made the president’s position clear to Polish broadcaster wPolsce: “He is pro-life.”
A clear signal also came from the European Parliament. It approved a resolution on Thursday to include the right to abortion in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
