One bill would seek to allow abortions for fetal abnormalities, which passed by 233 to 203, while the other bill would decriminalize helping a woman have an unlawful abortion, which passed by 217 to 213.
However, even if the bills pass the senate, it is expected that President Karol Nawrocki will veto both bills as he previously suggested he wouldn’t sign a bill decriminalizing abortion into law.
The bill allowing abortions for fetal abnormalities would reverse the ruling from the constitutional tribunal in 2020 under the Law and Justice party.
That judgment, which came into force in January 2021, removed fetal abnormalities as a ground for abortion leaving it legal in two instances: When the mother’s life or health is at risk or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.
That ruling led to protests in Poland.
On Tuesday, Nawrocki’s chief of staff said that Nawrocki “supports the protection of life from conception to natural death.”
The current ruling coalition, headed by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, considered more centrist, with a range of parties from left to center-right, pledged to soften abortion laws when it took power in December 2023.
However, up until now it has failed to do so, primarily due to in-fighting within the coalition.
Bishop speaks out
Ahead of Tuesday’s vote, Bishop Artur Ważny of Sosnowiec wrote on X (formerly Twitter), calling for the defense of life in the country.
“The defense of the defenseless, especially the unborn human being, is for me an absolute foundation that I cannot and do not wish to abandon,” he said.
“At the same time, with immense concern, respect, and empathy, I bend down to every woman experiencing the dramatic fear of giving birth to her sick or unwanted child. The firm defense of the life of the smallest does not mean numbness to your pain,” he added.
Ważny said he had listened to over 200 confessions from women who had had abortions, which only strengthened his opposition.
“The tragedy of this irreversible step is painfully known to me. Precisely in the name of genuine concern for the good and safety of women, I will always oppose this drama,” he said.
“Convincing about the supposed “post-abortion relief” is a profound distortion of reality—the wound on the soul heals very slowly,” he stated.
“That is why I fervently appeal: instead of escalating tension on the streets, let us direct our common energy toward concrete, rational help for women and men who, with terror, face a tragic diagnosis,” Ważny said.
Ważny also drew a comparison to how society reacts to a miscarriage versus an abortion.
“When a miscarriage prematurely takes away the long-awaited little one, parents immersed in pain weep, feeling with their entire being that they have lost a living, beloved person—Someone,” he said.
“And yet, when at the same stage of pregnancy defenseless life is ended, we are told that only a problem has been gotten rid of—something. Our will has no magical power to create or take away someone’s humanity,” he added.