Lawmakers in the Sejm, Poland’s lower house of parliament, have voted overwhelmingly to reject a bill for a near-total ban on abortion.
The leader of the ruling socially conservative Law and Justice party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, on Thursday urged the proposal by a group of citizens to be voted down saying that it could be damaging for the party. “What is being proposed isn’t the right course of action,” he said. “Considering the situation in the society ... its [the bill's] effect will be exactly opposite to what you’re talking about.”
Although Poland has among the tightest abortion laws in Europe, the bill proposed far more restrictive rules that would ban all abortions unless the mother's life was at risk and set jail sentences for women who had abortions and doctors who assisted them. MPs voted to reject the bill by 352 votes to 58.
The Catholic bishops conference in Poland released a statement just prior to the vote stating that although it backed the full protection of life from conception to natural death it could not support any legislation that would threaten women who have an abortion for any reason with prison sentences.
Earlier this week, ultra-conservative Catholic bishops condemned thousands of women who took to the streets dressed in black and with tape covering their mouths to protest the bill to make Poland's already tough anti-abortion laws more stringent.
“The human person will never win a fight against God,” Bishop Edward Janiak of Kalisz told Catholics at a Mass in favour of the vote in Gorzno. “Protest marches won't help, since ‘Do not kill’ means ‘Do not kill’. Although we all have the trace of God’s presence in us, we still don’t respect the life of others - even the life which begins under a mother's heart.”
But his view was not universally held by Catholic bishops in Poland. “We protect the values of life, but we don't want prison for women - this would be a terrible thing,” said the Bishop of Radom, Henryk Tomasik. “We need a great prayer for our homeland - that goodness will emerge, with respect for the life of all, including the infirm and handicapped.”
Poland's existing 1993 law restricts abortions to cases of rape, incest, severe foetal damage or threats to a woman's life, and has cut registered legal terminations, according to Health Ministry data, to around 1,000 nationwide per year.
Although a complete ban was rejected by parliamentarians in September 2015, the proposed new measure, which was tabled by Poland’s Right to Life Foundation, would have outlawed all abortions with penalties of up to five years’ jail. Doctors found to have assisted in an abortion would also be liable for prosecution and a prison term.
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