Polish election: Tusk party urged to show it is not ‘deceiving women’ on abortion

Five years after near-total ban on abortion, campaigners say Sunday’s elections will be critical to see if promised change happens

Ashifa Kassam, European community affairs correspondent
Thu 15 May 2025

Poland’s presidential elections are a “historic, groundbreaking” chance for Donald Tusk’s centrist party to show it was not trying to “deceive women” when it promised to change some of Europe’s most restrictive abortion laws, campaigners have said.

Voters across Poland will head to the polls on Sunday in the first round of the elections to replace Andrzej Duda, the current president who is aligned with the former rightwing government and has veto power over legislation.

Polls have suggested the frontrunner is Rafał Trzaskowski, the mayor of Warsaw, whose centrist Civic Coalition led by the prime minister, Donald Tusk, has promised to relax abortion laws. But in recent weeks his lead has narrowed and support has climbed for Karol Nawrocki of the populist, anti-abortion Law and Justice (PiS) party, suggesting the two could be pitted against each other in a runoff vote on 1 June.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/15/poland-elections-tusk-centrists-abortion-laws-campaign-europe

Poland clamps down on hospitals refusing to perform abortions

Jun 19, 2024

By Barbara Erling

WARSAW (Reuters) – Polish authorities have imposed a significant fine on a hospital for denying an abortion to a woman whose pregnancy may have endangered her life, marking a shift in a country with some of the strictest termination rules in Europe.

Poland’s previous nationalist government introduced a near-total ban on abortion in 2021 and embedded conservative social values in law during its eight-year rule.

Continued: https://whbl.com/2024/06/19/poland-clamps-down-on-hospitals-refusing-to-perform-abortions/

19.06.2024

Foundation for Women and Family Planning

National Health Fund

Pabianice Medical Center

Urszula Rygowska-Nastulak

Poland’s abortion-rights activists say they can teach Americans about loopholes

By Deborah Amos, NPR
Published June 23, 2022
LISTEN • 6:58 (with transcript)

LEILA FADEL, HOST:
In 1973, the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision legalized abortion across the United States. Now, nearly 50 years later, it could overturn that decision this month. Abortion activists are concerned about what that means going forward. But could other countries already be providing a snapshot? NPR's Deb Amos reports from Warsaw, Poland, which has the toughest restrictions on abortion in Europe. And a quick warning, there is a brief discussion of rape in this story.

(SOUNDBITE OF PHONE RINGING)
ANTONINA LEWANDOWSKA: Oh, sorry. That's probably an abortion intervention.

Continued: https://www.wncw.org/2022-06-23/polands-abortion-rights-activists-say-they-can-teach-americans-about-loopholes

How women are resisting Poland’s abortion ban

By Costanza Spocci
26 May 2022

Warsaw, Poland – On a cold, hazy December morning, the Ryz sisters stand on a sidewalk of a busy street in Warsaw.

“Shall we go to church?” 24-year-old Olympia asks her sister, Melania, grinning and holding up a dozen pink, yellow and grey stickers with the words, “Abortion is OK”, and the hotline numbers and social media profiles of Polish pro-choice organisations.

Continued: https://www.aljazeera.com/features/longform/2022/5/26/how-women-are-resisting-polands-abortion-ban

26.05.2022

Abortion Without Borders

Agnieszka T

Aleksander Stępkowski

All-Poland Women's Strike

European Court of Human Rights

FEDERA

Federation for Women and Family Planning

Law and Justice party

Ogólnopolski Strajk Kobiet

Olympia Ryz

Ordo Luris

Polish Episcopal Conference

registry of pregnant women

septic shock

severe foetal abnormalities

Poland government aims to create pregnancy register

08.01.2022
Video: 03:27 mins.
Alexandra von Nahmen

Poland has one of the strictest abortion laws in Europe, banning the procedure in all but a few cases. Now the government wants to take it a step further by creating an official registry of all pregnancies.

continued: https://www.dw.com/en/poland-government-aims-to-create-pregnancy-register/av-60205302

08.01.2022

doctors reporting women to police

Dr. Piotr Sieroszewski

Women’s rights activist charged for taking part in Polish abortion protests

Marta Lempart charged with insulting a police officer among other alleged offences

Maya Oppenheim, Women’s Correspondent
Feb 11, 2021

A woman’s rights activist involved in protests against the widely criticised near-total abortion ban in Poland has been charged.

In recent months Poland has been rocked by the largest protests since the collapse of communism after the government unveiled plans to further tighten already restrictive abortion laws last October - with demonstrations erupting again last month after the court’s justification for the original ruling was enshrined into law.

Continued: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/poland-abortion-protests-marta-lempart-b1800915.html

Poland abortion: Top court ban almost all terminations

October 22, 2020

Poland's top court has ruled that abortions in cases of foetal defects are unconstitutional.

Poland's abortion laws were already among the strictest in Europe but the Constitutional Tribunal's ruling will mean an almost total ban.

Once the decision comes into effect, terminations will only be allowed in cases of rape or incest, or if the mother's health is at risk.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54642108