Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced on Wednesday that, in keeping with his election promises, he was ready to introduce a bill in parliament to liberalize abortion in the country, where abortion rights are among the most restrictive in Europe.
• Also read: Disinformation threatens 2024, the record election year, warns the EU
• Also read: Elon Musk visits Auschwitz after anti-Semitic comments
The new Polish government passed a bill on Wednesday that allows free access to the morning-after pill.
Both medical procedures were severely restricted by the previous nationalist-populist government.
The Civic Coalition (KO), the centrist party led by Mr Tusk, is “ready to present in the coming hours a text” allowing “legal and safe abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy”, Mr Tusk said during a press conference .
In Poland, a country with a strong Catholic tradition, abortion is only permitted in cases of rape or incest, or when the mother's life is in danger.
In 2020, the Constitutional Court sided with the then populist-nationalist government and declared abortions due to fetal malformations “unconstitutional”.
In December, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) condemned Poland for “violating the right to respect for private life” after a young woman was denied access to an abortion due to “the presence of fetal anomalies.”
The Left, a member party of the victorious government coalition in last October's elections, has since introduced two legislative proposals in parliament in its own name, aimed firstly at the decriminalization of abortion assistance and secondly at the liberalization of abortion in Poland.
A second member of the governing coalition, the Third Way (Christian Democrats), rejects the idea of such a comprehensive liberalization of abortion rights.
This group, consisting of the Poland 2050 party of the President of the Lower House of Parliament, Szymon Holownia, and the Peasants' Party PSL, proposes “the return of the old law” from 1993, which provided for a very limited right to abortion.
“morning after pill”
Since coming to power, the new pro-European coalition has already restored public funding for in vitro fertilization.
The entire government approved a bill on Wednesday that would allow free access to the morning-after pill “from the age of 15.”
“The matter is closed, the bill will be submitted to parliament,” Mr Tusk said after a meeting of the Council of Ministers.
According to this text, the morning-after pill “will be available without a prescription,” he assured.
A doctor's prescription will continue to be required for those under fifteen years of age, as was the case before the restrictions introduced in 2017 by the populist nationalist power and advocated by its still-sitting President Andrzej Duda.
“I don't want to go into details, but you just need a little imagination to understand how this contraceptive works. Time plays a crucial role and the fact that a prescription was required very often meant that in many places in Poland there was effectively no emergency contraception available to those affected, explained Mr Tusk.
“This is a great moment for all of us! “We are giving women back the right to decide for themselves,” said the Ministry of Health on X (ex-Twitter).
Only 161 legal abortions were carried out in 2022, compared to around 2,000 before the law was tightened in 2020.
According to feminist organizations, 100,000 women terminate their pregnancies every year by taking abortion pills banned in Poland or going abroad.
In March 2023, Polish activist Justyna Wydrzynska was sentenced to community service by a Warsaw court for contributing to an abortion, an unprecedented case in Poland. His case is currently being examined by a second instance court.