Health ministry denies setting up centralised register of pregnancies

The Polish health ministry has denied media reports that a compulsory register of pregnancies has been enforced in Poland.

In early June, Minister of Health Adam Niedzielski signed an ordinance that would allow the country's Medical Information System to include information concerning allergies, blood types as well as pregnancies. Data reporting is mandatory as of October 1.

The government's move to include pregnancy information in a nationwide medical system has met with fierce criticism from the opposition, which claimed that it "persecutes women."

The head of Poland's main opposition party Civic Platform, Donald Tusk, said in June that the purpose of the ordinance was to create a "registry of pregnancies" that would "control women."

Wojciech Andrusiewicz, the health ministry spokesperson, said at the time the changes were simply part of a wide-ranging digitalisation project that would update the way data about a multitude of medical conditions were stored according to recommendations of the European Commission.

On Saturday, Polish media reported that "a ministerial mandatory pregnancy register has been launched."

Later in the day, the health ministry appealed on Twitter to the media "to be responsible in what they write."

"Today, no pregnancy registry comes into force. There has never been one, there is not and will never be one," the tweet read.

The ministry explained that "due to the requirements at the European Commission level and for the benefit of patients, we are only expanding the electronic Patient Card."