Tusk admits Polish abortion law liberalisation unlikely this parliamentary term

Prime Minister Donald Tusk has admitted that there will not be a majority for his promised liberalisation of Poland’s abortion law during the current parliamentary term – that is, until at least 2027.

Tusk’s Civic Coalition (KO) – the largest group in the ruling coalition, whose members range from the left to centre right – came to power on a pledge to, among others, end Poland’s near-total abortion ban introduced in 2021 under the former national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government.

The task, however, has proven to be more difficult than initially thought, as there is no consensus within the ruling coalition on how a new abortion law in Poland should look.

Since taking office in December, the government’s attempts to loosen the abortion law – which only allows the procedure if the pregnancy threatens the life or health of the mother, or if it resulted from a criminal act (such as rape or incest) – have failed.

Last month, parliament rejected a bill that would decriminalise aiding abortions, as the more conservative element of the government, the agrarian Polish People’s Party (PSL), voted against it, underscoring the ruling majority’s internal divisions on the issue.

“Until the next election, there will be no majority in this parliament for legal abortion, in the full sense of the word. We should not fool ourselves,” said Tusk on Friday evening, answering a question during Campus Polska Przyszłości, an annual event for young people organised by groups linked to elements of the ruling coalition.

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“Perhaps we will try to convince PSL…They, as you know, are saying firmly: we can agree to changes only on one condition, that there will be a referendum on this issue,” Tusk said.

He added that such a referendum, in turn, is opposed by women’s rights groups, who argue that access to abortion is a human right, and should not be decided by a public vote.

“I will not propose a referendum against [the will of] all those who are today victims of this provision. If they do not want it…then we will not force this referendum,” said the prime minister.

Even if a more liberal abortion law were to be approved by parliament, President Andrzej Duda, a conservative figure and PiS ally, has vowed to veto any attempts to soften the existing law.

Tusk, however, assured participants at the event that despite these restrictions, his government would take action to “relieve all those who rightly feel they are discriminated against in Poland”.

“A very different practice will be in the prosecutor’s office and in Polish hospitals. This is already underway, and it will be very noticeable,” he said. “But for now, these are going to be half measures. I apologise that it is all I can do at the moment.”

Aborcyjny Dream Team, an organisation that helps women in Poland access abortions, responded in a Facebook post to Tusk’s comments, stating that “we don’t have time to wait for politicians to get along, take pity on us and offer another rotten compromise”.

To facilitate access to abortions currently permitted by law, the Tusk-led government has introduced the threat of financial penalties for hospitals that unjustifiably refuse such procedures. In June, the first hospital was fined under the new rules.

Rafał Trzaskowski, Warsaw’s liberal mayor who is rumoured to become KO’s candidate in next year’s presidential election, disagreed with Tusk.

“I believe that the moment we have another president who is willing to support this type of solution, then the pressure on those who [use Duda’s veto] as a certain alibi…will be so great that it might be possible to agree to liberalise these regulations,” Traskowski told broadcaster TVN24.

Until 2020, abortion in Poland was legal in three cases: when pregnancy threatened the life or health of the mother, when it resulted from a criminal act (such as rape or incest), or when a severe birth defect was diagnosed in the foetus.

However, in November 2020, the constitutional court outlawed the third of those grounds, which had previously constituted around 97% of legal abortions.

That ruling went into force in late January 2021. The number of legal abortions in Poland more than doubled last year, as doctors started to more broadly interpret what constitutes a threat to the mother’s life or health.

The Left (Lewica), which put forward the rejected bill to decriminalise abortion, also pledged to continue the fight for a softer law.

“I want to tell you, without provoking anyone or arguing with anyone: The Left will not stop fighting for abortion rights,” said Włodzimierz Czarzasty, one of the group’s leaders, during Campus Polska Przyszłości on Saturday.

“And I do not agree with such a thesis that nothing can be done about it in this parliamentary term. Donald, sorry,” he added.

Main image credit: Campus Polska Przyszłości 

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.