Overview
- The Sejm voted Tuesday to pass two narrowly tailored bills and sent them to the Senate with final approval still required from President Karol Nawrocki.
- One measure, approved 217-213 with three abstentions, would remove criminal penalties for people who help women obtain abortions and shield medical staff who act for a woman’s life or health.
- The second bill, approved 233-203 with one abstention, would restore an exception for severe or fatal fetal abnormalities and require hospitals to meet deadlines and give written reasons when they refuse lawful terminations.
- President Nawrocki has signalled he will veto any liberalisation and the Tusk-led coalition lacks the three-fifths Sejm majority needed to override his veto, leaving the bills’ fate uncertain.
- Reproductive-rights groups and the United Nations committee that found Poland’s law causes grave human-rights harms call the changes incremental and urge an interim moratorium on prosecutions as many women continue to seek care abroad or through informal channels.