Abortion liberalisation bill will not pass says gov't spokesman
The Polish government spokesman has said a civil initiative bill liberalising abortion laws stands "no chance" of further processing in parliament.
The first reading of the 'Legal abortion without compromise' draft law was scheduled for Wednesday evening in the Sejm, the lower house of parliament. The proposed law was introduced by the pro-choice National Women's Strike protest movement.
It provides for free and legal termination of pregnancies until the twelfth week if the pregnancy threatens the life, health or psychological wellbeing of the mother or when prenatal diagnostics indicate a genetic defect or developmental abnormalities in the foetus, as well as when the pregnancy is the result of a crime.
"It's a bad idea and it's an idea that above all is incompatible with the constitution, according not only to the latest verdict of the Constitutional Tribunal (TK) but also a TK ruling of many, many years ago which already referred to that problem," government spokesperson Piotr Mueller said on Wednesday. Asked if the bill stood any chance of further processing, Mueller replied, "it has no chance."
The ruling by the TK on October 22, 2020, outlawed pregnancy terminations for foetal abnormalities. Abortions of pregnancies resulting from rape and those threatening the life of women are still formally legal in Poland.
Mueller went on to describe the proposed law as "a project of an ideological nature," adding that parliament had already rejected other bills on their first reading that sought to tighten abortion laws.
"I am not an advocate of building extreme ideological disputes in Poland," Mueller said. "This draft law, like one of the bills we have already thrown out, has exactly this type of goal."
