The Polish embassy in Prague requested that the Czech government intervene to prevent legislation that would make it easier for women from Poland to obtain abortions in the neighbouring country.
In a two-page letter sent to the Czech health ministry in March – first reported by Czech weekly Respekt and later confirmed by Poland’s foreign ministry – Polish chargé d’affaires Antoni Wręga, who is leading the embassy during the current absence of an ambassador, warned that the issue could “disrupt Czech-Polish relations”.
The proposed legislation relates to conditions under which foreign women can receive abortions in the Czech Republic. This would in particular concern women from Poland, which has some of Europe’s strictest abortion laws.
A ruling issued by the Polish Constitutional Tribunal last October ended virtually all legal abortions in Poland. Even before that, only around 1,000 terminations took place legally each year. But a further 80,000-150,000 more were obtained either illicitly in Poland or by women travelling abroad, according to estimates by women’s rights groups.
In his letter, Wręga reportedly emphasised that Poland respects the sovereignty of the Czech Republic and its right to make its own legislation. “But we also expect this attitude and respect for democratic processes and cultural values from the Czech side,” he said, according to Respekt and quoted by Polish news website Onet.
The adoption of the amendment would result in the “flourishing of abortion tourism in the Czech Republic”, allow Polish citizens to “violate the laws of their own country”, and “disrupt Czech-Polish relations”, the diplomat reportedly wrote in the 10 March letter.
“Therefore we consider it unfortunate if the legislative proposals legalising commercial abortion tourism are openly justified by the desire to circumvent Polish legislation protecting unborn human life, and these proposals are intended to encourage Polish citizens to violate Polish law,” read the letter.
In a response on 30 March, the Czech health minister, Jan Blatný, reportedly said that the legislation was being proposed in the Senate, and he therefore had little influence on it. He also emphasised that performing abortions on foreign women complies with national and European law.
Václav Láska, the head of the SEN 21 and Pirates caucus in the Senate that put forward the proposed amendment, also noted that the issue concerns “national law and our doctors”, and that therefore Poland’s intervention is inappropriate.
Czech Minister of Social Affairs showing solidarity with Polish women https://t.co/SS3G5BzI7Z
— Jakub Krupa (@JakubKrupa) October 29, 2020
Asked to comment on the issue by Onet, Polish deputy foreign minister Szymon Szynkowski vel Sęk said that “monitoring the legislative process in [other] countries, in particular in areas that concern or may significantly affect Polish citizens, is not only the right, but also the obligation of Polish embassies”.
“The possible introduction of a law that would be an attempt to circumvent Polish legislation and encourage the violation of the rights of Polish citizens in the Czech Republic may understandably raise legitimate concern for a Polish diplomatic institution,” he added. “These doubts were conveyed to the Czech side through the standard channel.”
“If there is the will to conduct public discussion on this matter, I am of course ready to present detailed doubts at a higher level, pointing to the effects of the measures on Polish-Czech relations,” the deputy minister said.
Main image credit: Can Ayaz/Flickr (under CC BY-SA 2.0)
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
