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Prime Minister Donald Tusk has failed in his first attempt to roll back parts of an abortion ban passed by Poland’s previous ultraconservative government, in a parliamentary vote that underlined deep divisions on social issues within the ruling coalition.
One of Tusk’s junior parties, the conservative agrarian Polish People’s party (PSL), on Friday joined the rightwing opposition and voted against a bill that would have decriminalised helping women terminate their pregnancies, including by offering them emergency contraception pills. Under current rules, doctors and pharmacists can be sentenced to up to three years in prison for providing help.
The outcome of the vote is a blow for Tusk who was elected last year on a progressive platform that included pledges to reverse the abortion ban imposed by the previous government led by the Law and Justice (PiS) party. The ban sparked mass protests in 2020 when it was upheld by the country’s constitutional court packed with PiS-appointed judges.
But Tusk has found it difficult to deliver on his promises as two of his coalition partners are more socially conservative than his centre-right Civic Platform party. In addition to PSL, there is also the Poland 2050 party led by Szymon Hołownia, a devout Catholic who is parliamentary speaker.
Lawmakers voted on Friday 218 to 215 against the bill, with two abstentions. Deputy premier Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz led the PSL’s vote against the bill, although four of his MPs voted in favour.
Hołownia and his Poland 2050 lawmakers agreed to support the bill, but the parliament’s speaker has called for a national referendum on any further changes to abortion laws.
Friday’s bill was seen as the least contentious in a package of four draft pro-abortion laws put forward by a leftist party in Tusk’s coalition.
The vote was about “the most conservative proposal for change, which was to ensure the safety of women”, said Poland’s disappointed minister for equality, Katarzyna Kotula. She called for women to draw lessons from Friday’s setback and “remember who are the brakes on your changes and vote for those who are always on your side.”
The Left party which drafted the bill promised to make another attempt soon at getting it passed in parliament after Friday’s rejection. “We are not giving up, we will fight until the end, until hell for women in Poland comes to an end,” said leftwing MP Anna Maria Żukowska.
Even if the bill had been approved on Friday, the country’s president, Andrzej Duda, had already indicated he would veto it. Duda, a PiS nominee, has been at loggerheads with Tusk and has already used his powers to block other pieces of legislation, as well as the appointment of several ambassadors and other senior officials.
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