Poland’s Tusk Fails to Liberalize Abortion Law

The Sejm, the lower house of Poland’s parliament, narrowly rejected a bill put forward by the ruling coalition that would have removed penalties for those performing or assisting with an abortion up to the twelfth week of pregnancy. 

The bill had been sponsored by the Lewica (Left) party within the coalition, and was also supported by Tusk’s Civic Platform party. The Polish People’s Party, an agrarian member of the current liberal governing coalition, was split on the measure, preventing its passage. The two members of the conservative opposition, the formerly ruling PiS and nationalist-libertarian Confederation party, opposed it.

Poland currently allows abortion in cases of rape, incest, or life of the mother, following a 2021 law passed by the then-ruling PiS party and a 2020 judicial ruling which banned it in the case of fetal abnormalities.

Tusk’s defeat on this bill shows that the hardball tactics that he has used since taking power can be stymied. 

Tusk has two other abortion bills in the hopper, one which would legalize abortion up until 12 weeks and another which would legalize it in cases with fetal abnormalities. The fate of that legislation is unclear after the failure of the decriminalization bill.