On Friday, the new ruling majority in the Polish parliament passed proposals that would scrap Poland’s strict abortion laws. The bills have a long way to go, however—and conservative President Andrej Duda can not only veto the bills, but also refer them to the conservative-leaning Constitutional Tribunal for review.
Three bills from the Donald Tusk-led government came before the Sejm, Poland’s lower house of parliament, with the express purpose of reversing existing restrictions on abortion, which are among the most stringent in the EU.
Abortion has been illegal in Poland since 1993, except in cases of rape, incest, when the mother’s life or physical health is threatened, or a fetal abnormality diagnosed. After a ruling from the Constitutional Tribunal in 2020, the exception for fetal abnormalities was removed in 2021.
Each of the bills came from one of the three main groups in the ruling coalition. The centrist Civic Coalition (KO), led by PM Tusk, and The Left (Lewica) each put forward bills that would allow abortion on demand up to the 12th week of pregnancy. The center-right Third Way (Trzecia Droga) instead urged moderation and proposed a return to pre-2021 laws.
A fourth bill, submitted by The Left, would additionally partially decriminalize helping women obtain abortions, which under current law is a crime carrying a prison sentence.
In all four votes, a majority of MPs approved the passage of each bill for discussion by a special committee, after which each of the bills would still require another vote in the Sejm to move forward.
MPs from Tusk’s KO voted in favor of all four bills. Some MPs from the Third Way, which is part of Tusk’s coalition government, opposed three of the four bills.
All four bills were opposed by conservative Law and Justice (PiS) MPs—now the main opposition party—and the socially conservative coalition Confederation (Konfederacja).
However, four of PiS’s 189 MPs voted for the Third Way’s bill while 21 abstained from voting, including PiS chairman Jarosław Kaczyński.
Talking to the press, Kaczyński indicated he would be willing to support softening Poland’s near-total abortion ban, yet warned this could only happen by changing the constitution.
All four bills now pass to a special parliamentary committee established to consider them. Its 27 seats are distributed among parliamentary groups based on their size, with 11 for PiS, nine for KO, two for PSL, two for Poland 2050, two for The Left, and one for Confederation.
Given the division among the political factions on the issue, once the committee has done its review of them, the bills still are a long way from becoming law.
Should any bill meet the Sejm’s approval, it passes to the upper-house Senate, where the government has an even larger majority.
Ultimately, it falls to the president to sign bills into law—in this case President Andrzej Duda, a conservative ally of PiS who has always stood firmly behind Poland’s existing abortion law.
As well as being able to veto bills, Duda can also pass them to the Constitutional Tribunal—known for having a strong conservative presence—for assessment. Any new abortion law could be declared unconstitutional by them.
In response to Friday’s vote, thousands of pro-lifers took to the streets of Warsaw for a National March for Life, which was held under the motto “Long Live Poland.”
Its spokesperson, Lidia Sankowska-Grabczuk, told Vatican News that their march was:
an affirmation of life, an affirmation of the family, an affirmation of all the basic rights of every human being. But at the same time, in the face of this revolution that is moving like a battering ram, which wants to limit the rights of parents and the rights of people to life, we are also marching in a strong sign of defiance to contain the demographic collapse and this wild rush for Europe.
