The arrival of a liberal government in Poland has been accompanied by an offensive to reverse the social policies of the previous government under the Law and Justice (PiS) party. In a step to oppose this, conservative President Andrzej Duda on Friday vetoed a law aimed at liberalising access to the morning-after pill.
The coalition that came to power in Poland in December has made no secret of its desire to see Poland ‘move forward’ on abortion and the promotion of homosexuality—in a break with the policy of the previous government. On February 22nd, the lower house of the Polish parliament passed a law by 224 votes to 196, authorising access to the ‘morning-after pill’ from the age of 15 without a prescription, whereas until then, a doctor’s prescription was required to obtain it.
On Friday, March 29th, in response to the parliamentary vote, Polish President Andrzej Duda, a member of PiS, vetoed the law. He explained in a press release that he “cannot accept legal solutions allowing children under the age of 18 to have access to contraceptive drugs without medical supervision and without taking into account the role and responsibility of parents,” by virtue of “standards for the protection of children’s health.”
The presidential text states that no satisfactory argument has been put forward as to the need to open up the supply of such a pill to 15-year-old girls and that it must echo parents’ requests. Duda is therefore calling for the law to be re-examined while saying he is open to the administration of such a pill to women over the age of eighteen.
This places the president in a tug-of-war with liberal Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who has no intention of conceding defeat on what is considered to be a highly sensitive and symbolic issue. The issue of softening restrictions on the morning-after pill is seen by the liberal government as the first step towards dismantling the child protection legislation currently in force in Poland, where abortion is only permitted in cases of rape, incest, or serious danger to the mother’s health. Following Duda’s veto, Tusk suggested the need for a “plan B,” not in the form of a law but in the form of a regulation scheduled for early May, which would allow the morning-after pill to be dispensed directly by pharmacists.
Liberals and Conservatives are also at odds over the nature of the pill, called ‘ellaOne.’ The Liberals maintain that it prevents pregnancy but is not an abortifacient like the RU 486 pill taken the day after potential fertile intercourse. However, its mechanism, designed primarily to prevent ovulation by a massive injection of progesterone, alters the cervical mucus and may have the effect of preventing implantation if fertilisation has already taken place, thus amounting to an early abortion.
Since November 2023, two bills aimed at authorising abortion up to twelve weeks of pregnancy have also been proposed. Their examination has not yet begun, and the government wishes to postpone it until after the local elections scheduled for April—aware that a debate on such a divisive issue in Poland would be likely to damage the coalition in power.
