Women’s groups and politicians have taken aim at Poland’s parliamentary speaker, accusing him of betrayal and seeking to “freeze” the issue of abortion, after he said parliament would not consider legislation to tackle the country’s near-total ban on abortion until mid-April.
“We feel disappointed and betrayed,” said Dominika Ćwiek from Legal Abortion, one of the groups battling the country’s draconian abortion policies. “The rights of Polish women are being treated as a side issue.”
The group is among those who have called on women to take to the streets on Friday to again call for access to abortion. “Legalisation of abortion was on the manifesto of every party in the coalition, but five months after the election, abortion is still being pushed into the background,” said Ćwiek.
The protests follow a tumultuous week in which the Sejm, Poland’s lower house of parliament, was meant to hear three bills aimed at loosening the country’s near-total ban on abortion. Instead, the parliamentary speaker, Szymon Hołownia, announced that the first readings would be delayed until 11 April, four days after local elections take place across Poland.
The delay, Hołownia argued, was necessary to ensure that the issue of abortion remained separate from the election campaign.
His reasoning was swiftly criticised by the Left party, which accused Hołownia of forcing the legislation into the “Sejm freezer” in a bid to obscure his party’s stance on the issue before local elections. A member of the Third Way, Hołownia is a declared Catholic and former talent show host who entered politics on a promise of offering a relatively moderate religious alternative to the far-right Law and Justice party.
The Left, which is part of a ruling coalition that includes the Third Way, accused Hołownia of stalling. “We have been waiting 30 years,” Left MP Anna Maria Żukowska told parliament. “You might think that waiting another week, or two, or three, is not a problem. But I do believe it is a problem.”
Her view was echoed by the country’s deputy justice minister, Krzysztof Śmiszek. “Continually postponing this issue is cowardice,” the New Left politician wrote on social media. “Women’s rights now!”
The delay has cast a spotlight on the deep divide in Donald Tusk’s unwieldy ruling coalition when it comes to the issue of abortion access. The Left party put forward two bills in November: one seeking to legalise abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy and another that would decriminalise the act of assisting abortions. But the Third Way has long voiced more conservative views on the issue, and has submitted legislation calling for a return to Poland’s strict 1993 laws.
Those laws, forged by political leaders and the Catholic church, ranked among the most restrictive in Europe, allowing abortions only in the case of foetal defects, rape, incest, or if the mother’s life and health were in danger. The laws were further tightened in 2020 to ban terminations in the case of foetal defects, setting off nationwide protests.
The struggle to secure abortion rights has been further complicated by the suggestion, floated by some members of the Third Way, that a referendum should be held on the issue.
The idea has been roundly rejected by campaigners, including Amnesty International, which insists that healthcare is a vital human right that should not be decided by a plebiscite.
Since the parliamentary speaker announced the delay, there has been no response from Tusk, whose party promised to do away with the near-total ban on abortion within 100 days of being elected. The postponed legislation includes a draft bill by Tusk’s Civic Coalition party, allowing abortion up to the 12th week.
“We have this very, very visible silence of Donald Tusk,” said Marta Lempart of the Polish Women’s Strike, a key player in organising the mass protests against the country’s abortion laws. “It’s not a coincidence: he could put Hołownia in his place in 30 minutes, telling him that he won’t be speaker of parliament if he acts like this. So his silence is a decision.”
Lempart’s organisation had originally called on people to protest on Friday against the country’s rightwing president, Andrzej Duda, after he said he would probably not sign off on parliamentary legislation allowing the purchase of the morning-after pill without a prescription for those over the age of 15.
Ćwiek said the focus would now be on Tusk and whether the delay would spur his Civic Coalition into action.
“Civic Coalition is the biggest coalition party thanks to the votes of young people and women,” said Ćwiek. “The next few days will be a huge test to show if we were right to trust them. If they will really defend our rights like they said they will.”
