Polish parliament rejects law banning “promotion of abortion”

Parliament has rejected a bill that would have introduced jail terms for “publicly promoting or calling for abortion” or providing information about how women can obtain abortions in Poland or abroad.

While the legislation – which was submitted to parliament as a so-called citizen’s legislative initiative supported by public signatures – was rejected by a large majority of MPs, over half of members of the conservative ruling coalition’s caucus voted either to allow it to proceed or abstained from voting.

The bill, entitled “Abortion is Murder”, would have prohibited “publicly promoting any activities regarding the possibility of abortion in the country and abroad” and “publicly advocating for termination of pregnancy within the territory of the country and abroad”.

It would also have banned “informing the public about the possibility of termination of pregnancy in the territory of the country and abroad” in cases where abortion is not permitted under Polish law, or of producing, importing or possessing any material containing such information.

Those violating those conditions could be imprisoned for up to two years. Meanwhile, anyone who “urges a woman to terminate a pregnancy” could be jailed for up to three years, rising to eight years “if the conceived child has achieved the ability to live independently outside the pregnant woman’s body”.

The legislation was submitted to parliament in December as a so-called citizen’s legislative initiative, which must be considered by MPs if they receive at least 100,000 signatures from the public.

In this case, the “Abortion is Murder” bill received almost 150,000 such signatures in a campaign organised by the Life and Family Foundation led by Kaja Godek, Poland’s most prominent anti-abortion campaigner.

During a stormy parliamentary debate yesterday evening, Godek told opposition MPs who had used their speeches to read out phone numbers of organisations that help women obtain abortions that they “should go to prison for promoting death”.

Wanda Nowicka, a left-wing MP, accused Godek of seeking to “harm and enslave women” through measures that have “totalitarian roots”.

In a subsequent vote, 300 MPs favoured not letting the bill proceed beyond its first reading while only 99 supported allowing it to proceed for further consideration.

All the main centre-right, centrist and left-wing opposition parties voted against the bill, as did 100 members of the Law and Justice (PiS) caucus representing Poland’s national-conservative ruling coalition. Among them was PiS chairman Jarosław Kaczyński).

However, 88 PiS MPs voted to allow the bill to proceed (including justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro, leader of a hardline junior coalition partner) and a further 21 abstained. The far-right Confederation (Konfederacja) party – whom Godek once stood for as an election candidate – also voted to let the legislation proceed.

Since January 2021, a near-total ban on abortion has been in force in Poland following a ruling by the constitutional court – a body widely seen as being under PiS’s influence – that outlawed terminating pregnancies when a severe birth defect is diagnosed.

Such abortions had previously constituted around 98% of legal terminations in Poland. Now, abortion is only permitted if the pregnancy results from a criminal act (such as rape or incest) or if it threatens the mother’s life or health.

Since the introduction of the near-total ban, a number of women’s rights groups have stepped up efforts to help women in Poland either obtain abortions abroad or receive abortion pills in Poland itself. Much of their work would have been made illegal under Godek’s proposed law.

Main image credit: Slawomir Kaminski / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

Daniel Tilles

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.