Update 7/12/2024: Legislation that would have decriminalized abortion in Poland failed to pass. According to Bloomberg, the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk voted 215 for and 218 against the bill, which would have allowed abortion through 12 weeks of pregnancy for any reason, and after 12 weeks if the woman’s health or life were said to be at risk, or if the baby were diagnosed with a health condition, and would have required all health facilities that receive public funding to commit abortions.
President Andrzej Duda had previously signaled he would veto the bill.
7/11/2024: Andrzej Duda, the president of Poland, has said he will not sign an extreme bill that would decriminalize abortion.
According to Radio Poland, the bill will be reviewed by the lower house of Poland’s parliament this week and would allow abortion through 12 weeks of pregnancy for any reason. It would also allow abortion after 12 weeks if the woman’s health or life is said to be at risk, or if the baby is diagnosed with a health condition, and would require all health facilities that receive public funding to commit abortions.
During an interview with Tvn24 in Washington during the NATO summit, Duda was asked if he would sign the bill. He replied, “No.” He added, “Abortion is murder. For me, it is simply the deprivation of life.”
Currently, most preborn children in Poland are protected from abortion. In 2020, the Constitutional Court established that abortion is unconstitutional in cases in which the child receives a “serious and irreversible malformation or disease terminal of the fetus,” reported Nova News. The current law allows abortion only in cases in which there is a risk to the mother’s health (though induced abortion — the direct and intentional killing of a child in the womb — is not medically necessary), and when the pregnancy is the result of a crime such as rape or incest.
READ: Abortion advocates inexplicably blame pro-life laws for Poland’s plummeting birth rate
After stating that he would not sign the law, Duda noted that women who sought or underwent abortions would not face charges. “However, as for other people who in some way participate in this procedure, in an illegal manner, their penalisation is a completely different matter,” he said.
According to Notes from Poland, in Poland last year, a pro-abortion activist was convicted for sending abortion pills to a pregnant woman, an OB/GYN was charged with unlawfully helping patients obtain abortions, and a man was indicted for aiding his partner in an abortion.
Duda was also questioned about his opinion on the bill by the Minister for Equal Opportunities, Katarzyna Kotula. In that interview, Duda responded that he must “see the details of the law.”
