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

Inside Poland’s Abortion Crossroads

... and what it has to do with the Kremlin.

Podcast: 27:50 minutes
WORDS: LAICIE HEELEY, PICTURES: COLIN LLOYD
DATE: APRIL 29, 2024

When does something as deeply personal as abortion become a matter of foreign policy? Maybe when it becomes a stand-in for national values and belief systems. Or maybe when it becomes a clever wedge to divide societies.

Today, Polish abortion activists are on the cusp of a huge change. After 30 years of some of the strictest abortion laws in the country, it looks like some liberalization could be on the way.

Continued: https://inkstickmedia.com/inside-polands-abortion-crossroads/

MPs and campaigners accuse Polish government of betrayal over abortion laws

Speaker says parliament will not consider updating country’s draconian abortion policies until mid-April

Weronika Strzyżyńska and Ashifa Kassam
Thu 7 Mar 2024

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.”

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/07/mps-and-campaigners-accuse-polish-government-of-betrayal-over-abortion-laws