Government denies that COVID-19 relief package strengthens penalties for illegal abortion in Poland

President Andrzej Duda has signed into law a further government package designed to help businesses and workers hit by the pandemic. But concerns have been raised that the legislation also strengthens penalties for unrelated crimes, including illegal abortion and insulting the president.

The law has been dubbed “Anti-crisis Shield 4.0”, as it marks the fourth in a series of measures introduced to mitigate the economic impact of the coronavirus crisis.

It allows for the temporary suspension of loan payments by struggling businesses, the raising of debt ceilings for local governments, and the further extension of childcare allowances for parents.

But it also includes a change to the criminal code apparently unrelated to combating the effects of the epidemic. This, according to certain legal experts, increases the likelihood of prison sentences for certain crimes, including insulting the president, conducting illegal abortions and medical malpractice.

The justice ministry, however, has dismissed the concerns as “fake news,” arguing that the sole aim of the introduced changes is to “efficiently combat criminals taking advantage of the state of pandemic and to restore the safety of the Polish citizens,” reports TVP Info.

Anti-crisis Shield 4.0

The earliest package of aid measures for businesses entered into law on 1 April and focused on five main pillars: jobs security, financial help for businesses, supporting the financial system and public investments, and funds for medical services.

Subsequent updates to the “anti-crisis shield’ were introduced in mid-April and mid-May, first extending the aid measures to a larger number of companies, as well as introducing subsidies for apartment renters and special solutions for local governments and the tourism industry.

The latest package offers support for fledgling companies struggling to pay off loans, reports Business Insider Polska. It refers to the bank loans that were to support companies’ financial liquidity, to which the government has allocated 570 million zloty.

The newest measures codify the three months extension of the loan holidays and automatically grant debt relief for businesses with micro-loans of up to 5,000 zloty which have continued to operate for three months since taking out the loan, reports Business Insider.

The package also seeks to prevent hostile takeovers of Polish companies by foreign investors from outside of the European Union. Notable transfers of company ownership to foreign investors in sectors including energy, gas, fuels, pharmaceuticals and food production will be overseen by Poland’s competition authority (UOKiK).

The shield involves regulations for local governments lifting their debt limits and allowing them to relocate money from their so-called “bottle stopper fund” (fundusz korkowy) – collected from businesses selling alcohol locally and put towards tackling alcohol and drugs problems – to mitigate the impact of coronavirus pandemic.

To date, the government’s “shields” have been adopted by 1.5 million micro-businesses that have taken out loans of a total value of 7.5 billion zloty. There has also been 1.6 million workers registered as furloughed, with the government contributing 3.2 billion zloty to cover salaries.

Moreover, companies have been exempted from social security payment of a total value of 7.5 billion zloty between March and May of this year.

Changing the criminal code

Two weeks ago, a groups of legal experts from Kraków’s Jagiellonian University issued a joint statement, warning that changes to the criminal code included in the economic package are unconstitutional. They recommended rejecting all the provisions in the shield that relate to criminal liability.

Mikołaj Małecki, an assistant professor of criminal law at the university, warns that, under the new legislation, courts will have to prioritise prison sentences for certain crimes, such as insulting the president, rather than issuing fines or community service.

Representatives of medical professions are similarly worried by the new regulations. The Supreme Medical Council appealed two days ago to Duda to block the amendment to the criminal code, reports Gazeta.pl.

They warned that it was an attempt to secretly tighten criminal punishment of doctors and dentists for even unintentional medical malpractice.

“The court will not have a very limited possibility to opt for a fine or community service rather than a prison sentence” said the head of the council, Andrzej Mateja.

Women’s rights groups have also expressed concern that penalties for illegal abortion may now be stricter. Two of them are organising a protest outside the presidential palace in Warsaw tomorrow.

Poland already has some of Europe’s toughest abortion laws, and it is estimated that the vast majority of terminations take place illegally.

However, the justice ministry assures that there are no grounds for concern.

“There will be no higher sentences for illegal abortion, insulting the president or medical malpractice,” said deputy minister Marin Warchoł, quoted by TVP. “There reports are just fake news and the ministry has already denied them all.”

He went on to say that the situation for doctors, nurses and other medical staff will not change at all and pointed out that, contrary to the criticism, the Anti-crisis Shield 4.0 does not alter any principles of criminal liability.

“[We are] not planning any legislation amendments concerning these issues,” said the ministry in a statement, reminding that currently it is the doctor who conducted an illegal abortion who can face legal consequences but the woman is not subject to any penalty.

Main image credit: Krystian Maj/KPRM (under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Agnieszka Wądołowska

Agnieszka Wądołowska is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She has previously worked for Gazeta.pl and Tokfm.pl and contributed to Gazeta Wyborcza, Wysokie Obcasy, Duży Format, Midrasz and Kultura Liberalna