- Parliament to vote on two bills: one partially decriminalizes abortion and assisting, the other would reverse the 2020 ban on abortions for severe fetal defects.
- Currently abortion allowed only for rape, incest, or maternal life or health threats; 98% of prior legal abortions were for fetal abnormalities.
- Outcome uncertain because of coalition divisions and right wing opposition, and a likely veto by conservative president Karol Nawrocki.
Poland’s parliament on Tuesday is set to vote on two bills liberalising abortion laws in the traditionally Catholic country which has some of the EU’s most restrictive rules on terminating pregnancies.
The first bill — submitted by Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s Civic Coalition (KO) party and the Left, would partially decriminalise the termination of a pregnancy and decriminalise assisting abortion — which can now be punished by up to three years’ imprisonment.
The second, submitted by more conservative coalition partners Poland 2050 and the Polish Peasants’ Party (PSL), would reverse the effects of a 2020 ruling by Poland’s highest court, the Constitutional Tribunal (TK), which made abortion illegal in the case of severe fetal deformities.
Tusk’s centrist, pro-European government promised to liberalise the country’s abortion laws ahead of winning the last elections in 2023 — but differences among the coalition’s different factions have delayed the process.
Currently, abortion is only allowed in two circumstances: when the pregnancy resulted from a criminal act — such as rape or incest — or if it threatens the mother’s life or health.
The 2020 decision by the Constitutional Tribunal, which the second bill seeks to reverse — ruled that severe fetal abnormalities were not legal grounds for abortion.
Prior to this ruling, 98 percent of legal abortions in Poland were performed for this reason.
According to data from Poland’s National Health Fund (NFZ), only 573 abortions have taken place in Polish public hospitals in the first half of 2026.
Last year, public hospitals carried out 851 abortions, according to the NFZ.
The new restrictions set off a torrent of protests throughout the country, which became the largest mass demonstrations in Poland since the 1989 anti-communist movement.
The outcome of the votes remains uncertain, given the differences within the coalition, which holds a parliamentary majority, as well as the vote of the right-wing opposition.
One of the right-wing parties did not issue any voting instructions.
Any attempts to ease abortion laws via parliament would likely face a veto by conservative-nationalist President Karol Nawrocki, who was endorsed by the then ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party that brought about and upheld the 2020 court ruling.
