On Friday, the Polish Parliament rejected a bill that would have eased Poland’s abortion laws. Noted for their strict abortion laws, abortion in Poland is illegal except in cases where the health or life of the mother is at risk or when the pregnancy results from a criminal act such as rape or incest.
Proposed last year by Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s political coalition Lewica (translated literally as The Left), the bill was defeated by a slim vote of 218-215. The bill, which would have decriminalized the act of helping a woman obtain an unlawful abortion up until the 12th week of pregnancy, is the first of four bills intended to soften Poland’s abortion restrictions. Thankfully, all of these bills are in doubt as President Andrzej Duda has the constitutional power to veto congressional legislation and he holds that abortion kills people.
Poland has a long and confusing history with abortion. In 1932, they became the first country in Europe outside the Soviet Union to legalize abortion in cases of rape and when the life or health of the mother is at risk. However, for a time under Nazi occupation, abortion was encouraged sometimes even enforced upon Polish women. Starting in the late 1950s, abortions became progressively easier to obtain under the communist Polish People’s Republic. During those years, women from other European countries would even travel to Poland to obtain an abortion. Following the end of Communist rule in 1989, pro-life laws were rapidly put in place throughout the 1990s, with support from Pope John Paul II, a Pole himself.
In the 21st century, both the pro-life groups and pro-choice groups of Poland have tried, and largely failed, to change the law in their favor. However, in 2020, the Constitutional Tribunal of Poland found that permitting abortion on the grounds of the fetus being malformed is unconstitutional, which leads us to the current abortion legislation in Poland that restricts abortion except in cases where the pregnancy is a result of a criminal act or for maternal health and only up until the 12th week.
Poland’s abortion laws that protect the lives of the unborn, while not perfect, are something of a shining beacon of light in the liberal region that is modern Europe. Despite a long history of allowing abortion, Poland can serve as an example to the rest of the West on how to overcome that history and protect life (although, having a long history of Roman Catholicism does help).
-
The blogs published on this news site are created by contributors to the International Youth Coalition. The opinions, views, and statements expressed in these blogs belong solely to the respective authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of the affiliated organization.
