Poland delays near-total abortion ban
Poland’s right-wing government has delayed implementation of a court ruling that would impose a near-total ban on abortions after two weeks of the country’s largest protests since the 1989 collapse of communism.
The country already had one of Europe’s most restrictive abortion laws before its Constitutional Tribunal ruled on Oct. 22 that terminating pregnancies for fetal abnormalities — one of three justifications for legal abortions and virtually the only type performed in the country — violated the constitution.
On Tuesday, the government indefinitely delayed the publication of the court’s ruling, which prevents it from going into legal force, in an apparent response to the protests. For the change to take effect under ordinary procedures, the government would have had to publish the ruling in a government journal by Monday.
The government still could publish the decision at any time, as it has done with other controversial rulings, even though legal experts say the delay violates the constitution.
“A discussion is ongoing,” said Michal Dworczyk, the head of the prime minister’s office. “In this situation, which is difficult and causes a lot of emotions, it is good to give ourselves a bit of time for dialogue and for working out a new position.”
Ewa Letowska, a law professor at the Polish Academy of Sciences and a former judge at the Constitutional Tribunal, the country's highest court, said the government’s delay was illegal.
“The publication of the tribunal’s rulings is mandatory,” she said. “Although there were objections to the ruling, some of them
legitimate, delaying the publication is unconstitutional.”
Before the Constitutional Tribunal’s decision, Poland allowed terminations of pregnancies in three instances: in cases of fetal abnormalities, a threat to a woman’s health, and incest or rape.
In practice, most legal abortions — 1,074 of 1,100 performed in the country last year — resulted from fetal abnormalities. Yet those abortions represent only a small fraction of those obtained by Polish women, who seek terminations abroad or undergo risky illegal procedures.
The court’s Oct. 22 ruling ignited a furor on the streets of Poland. Ignoring COVID-19 restrictions amid skyrocketing new coronavirus cases, hundreds of thousands turned out, holding banners that read, “I wish I could abort my government,” and, “This is war.”
The demonstrations across the
predominantly Catholic country also reflected a broader anger at the governing party over the erosion of democracy and other grievances, including its handling of the pandemic.
Critics accuse the government of circumventing parliament to introduce the effective ban on abortion. They say the tribunal is under the thumb of the governing party, which appointed 14 of its 15 judges.
The government, led by the Law and Justice party, also has been accused by experts and the European Union of taking control of the judiciary. The court’s president, Julia Przylebska, is a longterm friend of Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the party’s chairman and Poland’s most important politician.
Some protesters disrupted church services and confronted priests, challenging the Catholic Church, which holds a special place in Poland’s society after supporting the struggle against communism. The church is a close ally of the governing party.
Last week, Kaczynski called on his conservative supporters to “defend Poland, defend patriotism” and “defend Polish churches,” remarks that could be construed as encouraging them to clash with protesters.
“This is the only way we can win this war,” he said.
Although the demonstrations have been largely peaceful, farright activists, mainly young men dressed in black and armed with pepper spray and flares, occasionally confronted protesters violently.
In response to the social unrest, President Andrzej Duda submitted “a proposal of changes” to parliament that would slightly ease the restrictions the court supported by allowing the abortion of fetuses with “lethal” abnormalities.
It still would ban abortions in the case of other conditions such as Down syndrome.
There is little institutional support in Poland for families with children who have disabilities, leaving parents to fend for themselves once the child is born.
With polls showing drops in support both for the governing party and Duda since the protests began, a session of parliament thatwas supposed to consider the president’s proposal Wednesday has been postponed to mid-November.
A lawmaker from the governing party said the session had been postponed because of the pandemic.
Barbara Nowacka, an opposition lawmaker, said the government had postponed the parliament session in the face of the public outcry.
“They got scared by the protests,” she tweeted.