Opposition leader expresses outrage over so-called register of pregnancies

The head of Poland's main opposition party has criticised the government's latest move to include pregnancy information in a nationwide medical system, saying that it "persecutes women."

On Friday, 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.

Donald Tusk, the leader of the centrist Civic Platform (PO), argued, on Monday, that the purpose of an ordinance recently signed by Poland's health minister was to create a "registry of pregnancies" that would "control women."

Tusk pointed out that so called pregnancy registers were kept in many places around the world "to help pregnant women and to provide for the organisation of proper medical care."

However, in Poland, "we are dealing with an attempt to create a registry for purposes of control," he said. "It's not a coincidence, here, that were not talking about doctors but about prosecutors and police investigators."

"I would finally like the people who came up with it – (leader of the ruling Law and Justice party, Jarosław – PAP) Kaczyński, Father (Tadeusz - PAP) Rydzyk or Justice Minister (Zbigniew – PAP) Ziobro – to realise that Polish women are free women and are citizens with full rights," said Tusk, adding that "they (women- PAP) do not need to be controlled."

"Polish women are paying the highest price for the policies of hatred pursued by Jarosław Kaczyński and other politicians who hate women," Kamila Gasiuk-Pihowicz, an MP from the opposition Civic Coalition (KO) caucus, of which PO is the leading party, said during a press conference at the Sejm, the lower house of parliament, on Monday.

Wojciech Andrusiewicz, the health ministry spokesperson, denied the project amounted to a centralised pregnancy register. He said 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.