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’s far-right amplifies abortion wars ahead of election

by Barbara Wolk
April 28, 2025

Poland’s abortion debate has once again taken a dangerous turn — this time sparked by far-right MEP Grzegorz Braun, who stormed a Polish hospital to attempt a citizen’s arrest of a doctor performing a medically-indicated late-term abortion. Braun, a presidential hopeful from the extreme-right in the upcoming May elections, accused the doctor of committing “murder,” live-streaming his political stunt to rally his conservative base.

Currently, abortion is only legal in Poland in two circumstances: if the pregnancy is the result of rape (up to 12 weeks), or if the pregnancy poses a threat to the woman's life or health. The third legal reason — severe fetal abnormalities — was abolished in 2020 when the Law and Justice (PiS)-controlled constitutional tribunal ruled it unconstitutional, effectively reducing the number of abortions performed in hospitals by 90 percent. Since then, abortion has become not just a medical issue, but a political weapon of the far-right — used to polarise, control, and distract.

Continued: https://euobserver.com/eu-political/ard15429ac

Far-right Polish MEP threatens doctor with ‘citizen’s arrest’ over late-term abortion

Grzegorz Braun’s actions have been condemned by both the Polish justice minister and the country’s equality minister.

April 18, 2025
By Claudia Chiappa

Far-right European Parliament lawmaker and long-shot Polish presidential candidate Grzegorz Braun is facing a potential investigation after he stormed a hospital on Wednesday and threatened a doctor with a citizen's arrest for performing a legal late-term abortion.

Gizela Jagielska said she was signing some administrative documents when a crowd of about 30 men, led by Braun, burst into the hospital around 11 a.m. She said the men surrounded her, stopped her from leaving and told her she should be arrested.

Continued : https://www.politico.eu/article/right-wing-poland-mep-grzegorz-braun-threaten-doctor-citizen-arrest-late-term-abortion-gizela-jagielska/

Polish presidential frontrunner pledges to sign bills on contraception, Silesian and constitutional court

Mar 15, 2025
Notes from Poland

Rafał Trzaskowski, the presidential candidate of Poland’s main ruling party, says that, if he wins the election, the first bills he would want to sign would be to allow prescription-free access to the morning-after pill, recognise Silesian as a regional language, and overhaul the constitutional court.

Those bills have been blocked by current President Andrzej Duda, an ally of the conservative opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party. Trzaskowski says that he also wants to sign “as soon as possible” a bill liberalising the abortion law, though the ruling coalition has not yet managed to pass one.

Continued: https://notesfrompoland.com/2025/03/15/polish-presidential-frontrunner-pledges-to-sign-bills-on-contraception-silesian-and-constitutional-court/

15.03.2025

News

Andrzej Duda

Donald Tusk

emergency contraception

Law and Justice party

Polish ruling party’s presidential candidate outlines aims on abortion, defence and economy

Dec 9, 2024
Notes from Poland

The presidential candidate of Poland’s main ruling party, Rafał Trzaskowski, has outlined the priorities for his campaign, including ending the near-total abortion ban, increasing defence spending, and tackling inflation.

Speaking at a convention of the centrist Civic Coalition (KO) – at which he was introduced by Prime Minister Donald Tusk – Trzaskowski asked Poles to imagine how the country might look today if he had won the 2020 presidential elections, when he was narrowly defeated by Andrzej Duda, the conservative incumbent.

“There would be no embarrassment on the international stage, huge inflation, destruction of Polish schools, medieval anti-abortion law,” said Trzaskowski. “We will not allow that, women must decide about their lives and health.”

Continued: https://notesfrompoland.com/2024/12/09/polish-ruling-partys-presidential-candidate-outlines-aims-on-abortion-defence-and-economy/

09.12.2024

Law and Justice party

Polish Constitutional Tribunal

Expanding abortion access strengthens democracy, while abortion bans signal broader repression − worldwide study

October 24, 2024
Alison Brysk, Professor of Political Science and Global Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara

Abortion is on the agenda not just in the United States but worldwide.

A majority of people in developed democracies increasingly favor abortion rights and self-determination. And, in most places, laws are shifting to reflect public opinion. Since 2020, Argentina, Colombia and Mexico, among others, have legalized abortion. In 2024, France adopted the right to an abortion as a “guaranteed freedom” in its constitution.

At the same time, on every continent, some modern democracies are rolling back reproductive rights, among them Poland, Brazil and the U.S.

Continued: https://theconversation.com/expanding-abortion-access-strengthens-democracy-while-abortion-bans-signal-broader-repression-worldwide-study-240278

24.10.2024

Commentary

Abortion Rights Backlash

Alberto Fernandez

Alisan Brysk

Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women

enshrining abortion rights in constitution

Law and Justice party

A year after Tusk came to power, why is access to safe and legal abortion still a distant dream in Poland?

A year ago, Anna Błuś travelled home to her native Poland to vote in an election whose result she hoped would usher in a change to the country’s near total ban on abortion. What went wrong?

By Anna Błuś, Amnesty International
October 15, 2024

Exactly a year ago on the eve of Poland’s elections, I joined a huge queue snaking around a polling station in Warsaw on a cold autumn day. Despite the chill and the hours spent waiting to vote, the atmosphere was festive. There was a mood of anticipation in the air: a palpable sense that change was coming after eight years of regressive rule by the Law and Justice (PiS) party.

As I watched the exit polls in a packed bar later that night, it became clear that this had been an election like no other with a record turnout (74%) and unprecedented numbers of women and young people coming out to vote.

Continued: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/10/a-year-after-tusk-came-to-power-why-is-access-to-safe-and-legal-abortion-still-a-distant-dream-in-poland/

Polish activists say new abortion guidelines not good enough

Prime Minister Donald Tusk has resorted to stopgap measures to placate women's rights activists after he was unable to fulfill his promise to liberalize the country's restrictive abortion law.

Monika Margraf in Warsaw
Aug 17, 2024

"I remember when only 50 people came to my protests in defense of women's rights in 2016," said Anna Sikora. "After four years, almost 2,000 people took part in the protests. Most of them also took part in the last parliamentary elections as I called on them to do."

Sikora, a mother of two from the central city of Sieradz, is a left-wing activist and local leader of women's protests that have swept Poland and mobilized women against the Catholic-conservative Law and Justice party (PiS), which led the country from 2016 to 2023. Their hopes for changes to the abortion law made the party's electoral defeat possible in fall of 2023.

Continued: https://www.dw.com/en/polish-activists-say-new-abortion-guidelines-not-good-enough/a-69964722

Poland – How much will the abortion issue damage the Tusk government?

Aug 16, 2024
By Aleks Szczerbiak, Notes from Poland

The Polish governing coalition’s defeat in last month’s vote to decriminalise aiding abortions was a wasted opportunity to demonstrate its effectiveness on a highly contentious but symbolically important issue.

It contributed to a growing sense that the coalition came together solely to defeat its right-wing predecessor and contains a wide, often incompatible, range of views, especially on moral-cultural issues.

Continued: https://notesfrompoland.com/2024/08/16/how-much-will-the-abortion-issue-damage-the-tusk-government/

16.08.2024

Commentary

Civic Platform party

Donald Tusk

Law and Justice party

New Left party

Poland 2050 party

Polish Constitutional Tribunal

Polish People’s Party

Poland’s Abortion Reform Stalls as Coalition Politics Clash with Campaign Promises

Aug 12, 2024
Zuzanna Stawiska, Health Policy Watch

Nearly a year after new Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk promised a fresh start for abortion rights, following his election victory in October 2023, reform efforts have stalled as campaign promises collide with the realities of coalition politics in a divided Poland.

Poland is amongst only four countries worldwide to have restricted abortion rights in the past three decades, joining El Salvador, Nicaragua, and the United States. In 2020, Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal, stacked with judges appointed by the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, further tightened the country’s already strict 1993 abortion law.

Continued: https://healthpolicy-watch.news/polands-abortion-reform-stalls-as-coalition-politics-clash-with-campaign-promises/