Polish govt. begins the longawaited debate on liberalising abortion laws
Poland’s parliament on Thursday will open a longawaited debate on liberalising abortion laws in the majority Catholic country, with splits in the ruling coalition suggesting an uncertain outcome.
Women’s rights were rolled back during the eightyear rule of the previous rightwing Polish government, with the tightening of already strict abortion laws sparking mass rallies nationwide.
The country of 38 million has some of the strictest antiabortion laws in the European Union, allowing it only if pregnancy results from sexual assault or incest, or if it threatens the life or health of the mother.
Elections last
October
Polish Minister for Equality Katarzyna Kotula speaking at the Parliament on the day of the debate on abortion laws.
yielded a proEU government coalition comprising the Civic Coalition of Prime Minister Donald Tusk and the Third Way and Left groupings. Mr. Tusk’s party and the Left have pledged to legalise abortion, but the other coalition members are divided.
Bills that would grant more reproductive rights have been stuck in parlia
ment for months.
A sixhour debate is now scheduled to start on Thursday afternoon on a Bill to legalise abortion until the 12th week of pregnancy, submitted by Mr. Tusk’s Civic Coalition, and three other proposals by its coalition partners. But the outcome is uncertain as some coalition lawmakers are reluctant to back the legislation in a vote scheduled for Friday. And even if parliament approves the reforms, they would still need to be signed into law by President Andrzej Duda, which the conservative Catholic ally of the conservative PiS party in the Opposition is unlikely to do.
“Bills of similar content have been discussed in parliament many times over the past 30 years but none of them was ever forwarded for further committee proceedings,” Krystyna Kacpura, head of the Federation for Women and Family Planning, said.
Mr. Tusk, a former EU chief and the archfoe of the rightwing PiS party previously in power, said he hoped lawmakers representing his coalition would allow the legislation to clear the first hurdle.