The Polish justice ministry has been criticised after outlining plans to support women forced to give birth to foetuses with fatal defects due to a near-total ban on abortion. Among the suggestions was for women to get a “personal room” and the “chance to have a cry”.
The proposal is among a number of ideas being put forward by political parties in response to last week’s publication of a ruling by the Constitutional Tribunal, thereby bringing it into force. The ruling outlaws abortion due to birth defects of the foetus, which previously made up around 98% of legal terminations in Poland.
The judgement has prompted discussion of new legislation in parliament. The national-conservative ruling coalition is seeking ways to support women who must now give birth to foetuses diagnosed with defects, while a left-wing opposition group is proposing a law to decriminalise doctors who provide abortions.
Among the proposals is draft legislation announced last week by United Poland (Solidarna Polska), one of two junior partners in a ruling coalition with the Law and Justice (PiS) party. The bill would create hospices to support mothers giving birth to non-viable foetuses.
Today, the spokeswoman for the justice ministry – which is headed by Zbigniew Ziobro, leader of United Poland – was asked by broadcaster TVN24 for details of what the bill would provide for a woman giving birth to a foetus with fatal defects.
“She will have, for example, a separate room, the chance to have a cry,” replied Agnieszka Borowska. She also outlined that such women would be offered “special care”, including psychological treatment and “advice on what to do next”.
Oglądałem kiedyś serial w którym było podobnie, ale sądziłem wtedy że to fikcja.
Nazywal się "Opowieść Podręcznej". https://t.co/hrAu1uLP27— Michał Kolanko (@michal_kolanko) February 3, 2021
Borowska’s comments quickly drew criticism from a variety of commentators. Michał Kolanko, a political reporter for the centre-right Rzeczpospolita, wrote that the remarks reminded him of The Handmaid’s Tale.
“I would prefer for the Polish state to do everything [possible] so that women do not have to cry,” tweeted Renata Grochal, a journalist at the liberal Newsweek Polska. “Tabliban,” wrote Joanna Miziołek of the weekly Wprost.
PiS has not yet publicly responded to its coalition partner’s proposal. However, last week one of the party’s MPs called for the government to “present a complex support package for mothers as soon as possible”. Work on such measures has been underway for months, reported Interia today.
PiS has, however, made clear its support for the abolishment of what it calls “eugenic abortions”. Its leader, Jarosław Kaczyński, promised in 2016 “to strive so that even in cases where there is a very difficult pregnancy, when the child will inevitably die, when it is severely deformed, it will end in birth, so the child can be christened, buried and given a name”.
At the opposite end of the political spectrum, The Left (Lewica), which is the second largest opposition group in parliament, has called for other opposition parties to support legislation decriminalising those who help women obtain abortions.
Announcing the proposal on Monday, Magdalena Biejat, an MP, noted that hospitals have already been cancelling planned terminations. Doctors “now face the dilemma of whether to help women and thus expose themselves to criminal consequences or to violate their Hippocratic Oath”.
“[Our] legislation will support doctors and women,” said Biejat, quoted by Dziennik Gazeta Prawna. “No one will have to fear imprisonment for wanting to help women who come to a doctor with a fatal defect of the foetus. [It will ensure] that the decision belongs to the doctor and, above all, to women.”
.@MagdaBiejat: #UstawaRatunkowa autorstwa Lewicy, dekryminalizuje pomoc przy aborcji, jest w stanie pomóc lekarzom i kobietom oraz ich wesprzeć.
– Wzywamy, aby dzisiaj rozmawiać o tej ustawie i o tym, co możemy zrobić, aby ta ustawa została przyjęta i złagodziła efekty wyroku TK. pic.twitter.com/SDdC5gxkXI— Lewica News 🗞️📻📺 (@Lewica_News) February 1, 2021
While The Left has previously pushed for liberalisation of Poland’s abortion law – which, even before the latest ruling, was the strictest in the EU apart from Malta’s – the main centrist opposition has generally favoured maintaining the status quo. Polling also suggests that most Poles support neither liberalisation nor restriction of the law.
The largest opposition party, Civic Platform (PO), has criticised the Constitutional Tribunal’s ruling, and accused PiS of using it as a way to distract from criticism over its rollout of the coronavirus vaccine and growing protests by businesses against lockdown.
However, PO – a party that incorporates both liberal and conservative wings – has so far failed to present an alternative. It this week announced that it was appointing a team led by former presidential candidate Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska to work out a new position.
“There can be no return to the abortion compromise [the previous situation] that has been destroyed by PiS,” said Urszula Augustyn, a member of PO’s board, quoted by Polsat News. “We want to work out a position that will accommodate both the right and the left, a position closest to the centre.”
Meanwhile, Szymon Hołownia, leader of the centrist Poland 2050 (Polska 2050) movement that is currently third in the polls, has also expressed opposition to the Constitutional Tribunal’s ruling.
Hołownia, a devout Catholic who once began training as a priest, has in the past supported a ban on abortion, which he called “murder in all cases”.
However, speaking to Polsat News this week, he said that that had been a personal opinion expressed in his former career as a journalist. He has “not changed” his own view, but now, as a politician “taking responsibility for the country”, he respects the fact that his position is “more conservative” than most.
Main image credit: Cezary Aszkielowicz / Agencja Gazeta
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.
