Promises, Promises

Listen to Today's Edition:

Thousands of people protested across Poland this week after the country’s parliament rejected a bill that would decriminalize assisting abortion, dealing a blow to the ruling coalition of Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s electoral pledges to provide more access to the medical procedure, Agence France-Presse reported.

On Tuesday, demonstrators and women’s rights campaigners marched in a number of Polish cities, including the capital Warsaw, to express frustrations over the government’s failure to liberalize abortion laws.

Current legislation only allows the procedure in cases of rape, incest, or when it threatens the mother’s life.

Before winning the 2023 parliamentary elections, Tusk vowed to liberalize the procedure and undo the abortion restrictions implemented by the previous government of the conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS), according to Politico.

But earlier this month, a bill to decriminalize assisting abortions was narrowly defeated in parliament by a 218-to-215 vote.

Ahead of Tuesday’s demonstrations, Tusk expressed disappointment at the result but reiterated his commitment to decriminalizing abortion as central to his vision of a reformed Poland.

Even so, observers noted that legalizing abortion will be a challenging task for the prime minister, adding that it also exposed rifts within his governing coalition.

The conservative Polish People’s Party, a partner in Tusk’s coalition, voted against the draft law. In response, Tusk fired a deputy minister and called for sanctions against another lawmaker.

Meanwhile, three other proposed bills to ease abortion restrictions are being debated in parliamentary committees, but face resistance from conservative coalition members.

At the same time, President Andrzej Duda – an ally of PiS – has indicated he would veto any liberalizing abortion bills.