Polish parliament eases abortion punishment... A conservative president is likely to reject it.

‘Complete legalization’ remains in place for 3 years due to opposition from conservatives

(Berlin = Yonhap News) Correspondent Gye-yeon Kim = The Polish parliament passed a bill to ease punishment for abortion.

Legalizing abortion is a long-awaited project that Prime Minister Donald Tusk has set as his top priority in the 2023 general election. However, there is a possibility that this bill will also be defeated due to the conservative president's veto of the bill.

According to AFP, the Polish House of Representatives passed two bills related to punishment for abortion on the 20th (local time). It removes the criminal punishment provision that punishes medical professionals who assist in abortions with up to three years in prison and allows abortion in cases where the fetus is seriously deformed.

Poland, which has a strong Catholic conservative tendency, strictly regulates abortion, unlike other European Union (EU) countries that allow abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy. Currently, it is only legal if the pregnancy is a result of a crime such as sexual assault, or if the fetus poses a threat to the pregnant woman's life or health. According to the Polish National Health Fund (NFZ), only 573 abortions were performed in public hospitals in the first half of this year.

The already strict regulations were further strengthened during the nationalist right-wing Law and Justice Party (PiS) regime. In 2020, the Constitutional Court ruled that abortion due to congenital disabilities was unconstitutional, and the following year, a pregnant woman died after being refused the procedure by a doctor, leading to large-scale protests.

Prime Minister Tusk came to power in the 2023 general election with a pledge to legalize abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy, like other EU countries. However, due to opposition from Catholic conservatives within the coalition government, no significant results were achieved for nearly three years. As the first measure of deregulation in 2024, an attempt was made to revise the law to allow emergency contraceptives to be purchased without a doctor's prescription, but this was canceled due to then-President Andrzej Duda's veto.

The bill passed this time is also evaluated as decriminalizing some surgical procedures, so it falls short of the goal of complete legalization. Women's rights group Regalna Aborca ​​(Legal Abortion of Pregnancy) pointed out, "What does this mean to women who need abortion right away? None of these bills are of any help to them."