The draft bill initiated by civil society organisations was rejected by the Sejm in the first reading on 23 June 2022. 265 MPs supported the rejection, 175 MPs were against and 4 MPs abstained.
Despite phenomenal speeches of the representatives of the civic initiative’ s legislative committee which contributed to the ongoing debate on abortion, the deputies decided to uphold their hypocritical vision of reality from which abortion is erased.
At FEDERA we know that abortion is a part of life. We will not cease in helping women and families to obtain access to abortion care by all possible means most adequate in the individual situation: medical abortion, abortion abroad and in Polish hospitals whenever possible.
Politicians don’t scare us with their medieval laws and inhumane views. Times will change.
We stay united and don’t give up.
The following were the main provisions of the Legal Abortion Without Compromise bill:
- abortion is available under the public health scheme until week 12th week without asking for reasons;
- abortion is available under the public health scheme after the 12th week in the case of fetal defects or when pregnancy is a result of a criminal act;
- strict deadlines as regards providing abortion services and sanctions on doctors for abusing of the refusal of care on the ground of conscience;
- duty for the directors of hospitals to hire subcontractors in the event of refusal of care on the grounds of conscience by all doctors working in the facility;
- decriminalization of abortion: no criminal penalties for doctors and persons assisting in abortions in violation of the provisions of the restrictive anti-abortion act;
- simplification and acceleration of the “objection procedure” serving to challenge refusal of service/doctor’s opinion (24 hours deadline for reply);
- prenatal testing programme will cover specialist tests such as PAPP-A and ßhCG for all patients which are performed in the 1st trimester of pregnancy to detect potential illness of the foetus.
Over 200,000 Polish citizens signed the draft bill, which made it possible to present it to the Parliament for discussion and subsequent vote.
On June 22, FEDERA called on Polish MPs to adopt the bill in the first reading.
Legal opinion on the compliance with the Polish Constitution of the submitted Legal Abortion Without Compromise here.