Subscribe here: [ Ссылка ] The European Parliament has held a debate on Poland’s abortion laws after a UN report indicated that Polish women are facing blatant violations of their human rights.
The three-year investigation, conducted by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), revealed the ‘devastating toll’ the law was taking on women’s health and rights in Poland and called for swift and sweeping legal reform to legalize and fully decriminalize abortion.
It said: “Women are forced to endure unwanted pregnancies, seek unsafe and illegal abortions, or travel abroad for medical care where abortion is legal.”
Polish MEPs speak out
Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus, a Polish MEP from the New Left told the European Parliament: “Human rights as well as some women's rights are being violated in Poland.”
She added that it was “the Polish women who had overthrown Poland’s former authorities, but now many of them feel deceived as, despite its promises, the new government has done nothing to change the restrictive regulations.”
Another Polish MEP, Ewa Kopacz of the Civic Coalition, said that the abortion ban "has not made abortion disappear, but has only made it disappear from the health service radar."
Admitting that the regulation of abortion falls within the national jurisdiction of each member state, European Commissioner for Equality Helena Dalli said that EU members must also observe their constitutions and must not violate the fundamental rights of citizens.
Polish right-wing MEPs described abortion as the killing of an unborn child.
Polish New Left MEPs said prior to the European Parliament debate on the findings of the CEDAW that its report was “devastating” for their country.
The CEDAW inquiry into Poland’s abortion law was initiated after submissions by the Centre for Reproductive Rights, in collaboration with Polish civil society organizations including the Foundation for Women and Family Planning (FEDERA) and the Karat Coalition.
Tightening the reins
Poland’s abortion rules, already among the strictest in Europe, were made even tougher after a Constitutional Tribunal ruling of 2020.
The verdict came as a result of a request, filed with the constitutional court by a large group of MPs, mainly from the then ruling party, the socially-conservative Law and Justice (PiS), to examine the law that was in force at that time and which allowed abortion in case of severe damage to the fetus.
The 2020 ruling in effect introduced a near-total ban on the procedure - only allowing abortion in cases of rape or incest, or if the life of the woman is endangered.
PiS, which has for years sought a close alliance with the Catholic Church, ignored the massive street protests that spread across Polish cities following the ruling.
Coalition’s divisions on reforms
When parliamentary elections came in October 2023, hundreds of thousands of disgruntled women went to the polling stations to elect three pro-European parties, which then formed the new government, in the hope they will be able to change the situation.
But a government composed of the centrist Civic Coalition (KO), the liberal Left and the center-right Third Way, a sub-coalition of the middle-of-the road Poland 2050 and the agrarian PSL, was doomed to have problems with the abortion issue from the very start.
The KO and the Left made it clear they want to liberalize abortion rules, while the Third Way presented a more reserved approach as PSL’s voters mainly come from the countryside and are often devout Catholics.
The rift in the coalition government was evidenced in a vote in July, when it lacked a majority to pass the bill.
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