Pro-choice “Save Women” bill with 500 000 signatures submitted to the Polish Parliament

Pro-choice “Save Women” bill with 500 000 signatures submitted to the Polish Parliament
Oct 24, 2017

On October, 23 the “Save Women” Civic Committee tabled almost 500 000 signatures collected under the bill on women’s rights and conscious parenthood. The lower chamber has now three months to initiate a debate on the draft legislation. It is now the ruling party’s move to decide whether the draft will be sent to further proceeding – as promised in the election campaign, or if it will be rejected – as the practice up to now shows.

Continued at source: http://www.astra.org.pl/repronews/543-pro-choice-save-women-bill-with-500-000-signatures-submitted-to-the-polish-parliament.html

Protesters Decry Poland’s Proposed Near-Total Ban on Abortion

Published on Monday, September 26, 2016
by Common Dreams

Poland's right-wing parliament moved forward with legislation that would sentence women and doctors to years in prison for terminating a pregnancy

by Nika Knight, staff writer

Poland's ruling right-wing party on Friday pushed forward with a nearly complete ban on abortion, and women around the country and in cities across Europe rose up this weekend to condemn the legislation.

The new anti-abortion bill "proposes to permit abortion only if the pregnancy threatens the mother's life," according to the Telegraph, forcing victims of rape or incest to carry those pregnancies to term. "Women who have terminations could be jailed for between three months and five years, while practitioners of illegal abortions could also face five-year sentences, up from two years at present," the newspaper adds.

And because doctors are threatened with prison sentences for performing abortions, they will be reluctant to perform abortions even when the mother's life is indeed threatened, as a doctor argued before parliament earlier this year: "If I have a 32-week pregnant patient with pre-eclampsia, I have to wait for her and her child to start dying before I can take action," explained Professor Romuald Dębski, who is quoted by Amnesty International.

"If there is an ectopic pregnancy and bleeding, I can perform a termination. But if there is no bleeding—no immediate risk to life—I have to wait until she starts dying," Dębski said.

[continued at link]
Source: Common Dreams

Photos of Last-Minute Protests Against a Harsh Abortion Law in Poland

September 24, 2016

Photos by Karol Gryforuk, Words by Katarzyna Stupnicka

"We want to love, not die!" was one of the protest's slogans.

This article originally appeared on VICE Poland.

Thousands protested in front of the Poland's parliament on Thursday night against a near-total ban on abortion, while inside the building, members debated on three draft laws. The pro-choice coalition Save Women and the left-wing political party Razem organized the demonstration. A smaller counter-demonstration also occurred at the same place, at the same time. A police cordon separated the two groups.

[Story and photos at link]
Source: Vice.com

24.09.2016

pro-choice demonstration

Polish lawmakers push on with near-total ban on abortion

Ruling PiS party committed to law banning most terminations and making maximum jail term for practitioners five years

Agence France-Presse in Warsaw

Friday 23 September 2016 14.33 BST, The Guardian

Rightwing lawmakers are pushing ahead with a near-total ban on abortion in devoutly Catholic Poland, while rejecting a rival bid to liberalise an existing law which is already among the most restrictive in Europe.
Thousands protest against proposed stricter abortion law in Poland
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The governing conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, which controls parliament, has sent to committee a bill that would allow terminations only if the mother’s life was at risk, and increase the maximum jail term for practitioners from two years to five.

The citizen’s initiative tabled in parliament by the Stop Abortion coalition would also make mothers liable to prison terms, though judges could waive punishment.

[continued at link]
Source: The Guardian

23.09.2016

Law and Justice (PiS)

Battle over abortion law heats up in Catholic Poland

By EurActiv.com with AFP

Sep 21, 2016

Poland’s abortion battle resume today (22 September) when the devoutly Catholic country’s parliament debates rival initiatives to either liberalise or further tighten a law that is already one of the strictest in Europe.

While the governing rightwing Law and Justice (PiS) party, which controls parliament, generally favours banning abortion, its leaders are well aware that most Poles support existing legislation.

Passed in 1993, the current law bans all terminations unless there was rape or incest, the pregnancy poses a health risk to the mother or the foetus is severely deformed.

A poll published this week by the Newsweek Polska magazine showed that 74% of Poles want to keep the existing law.

But anti-abortion activists want to allow terminations only if the mother’s life is at risk and to increase the maximum jail term for practitioners from two years to five.

[continued at link]
Source: EurActiv.com

21.09.2016