Poland: Total Ban on Abortion Narrowly Defeated

By J.C. von Krempach, J.D. | September 2, 2011

By a narrow margin of 191 to 186 votes the Polish Parliament (Sejm) has rejected a bill that would have foreseen a total ban on abortion. Following this defeat, the current law, which allows abortion in restricted circumstances (including situations in which the pregnancy endangers the women’s life or health; prenatal or other medical tests indicate a high risk that the fetus will be severely and irreversibly damaged or suffer from an incurable life-threatening disease, or there are strong grounds for believing that the pregnancy is a result of a criminal act, such as rape) will remain in force.

Observers say that the defeat of the bill, which was introduced into the Parliament by a popular initiative, was due to the fact that the governing “Citizens’ Platform” of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, quite unusually for such issues, prohibited its Members of Parliament from voting according to their consciences. 15 Citizen’s Platform Members nevertheless voted in favour of the bill and now face sanctions.

Despite this defeat, the episode gives strong encouragement to pro-life campaigners in Europe. If there has ben a narrow defeat this time, there could be victory at the next occasion. There is nothing to prevent citizens from launching a new initiative.

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