Polish government delays abortion ban cornered by protests

Protest against the veto on abortion and the Government this Monday in Warsaw.

On the posters, the name of the feminist organization Strajk Kobiet and on the other one reads a slogan against the government party: "Pis OFF." JANEK SKARZYNSKI / AFP

Cornered by a multitude of protests that have taken place in Poland since last October 22, with hundreds of thousands of protesters calling for the resignation of the ultra-conservative government en bloc, the Executive has taken a timid (but significant) step back in its crusade against the abortion.

The Government of the Law and Justice Party (PiS) had until Monday to publish in the Official State Gazette the ruling of the Constitutional Court that restricts the interruption of pregnancy to the maximum.

But it has not done so, and therefore, the controversial ruling that has caused an unprecedented social outbreak as well as revolts against the Catholic Church or the great mobilization of young people has not been implemented.

"There is an ongoing discussion and it would be good to take time to dialogue and find a new position in this situation, which is difficult and arouses great emotions," Michał Dworczyk, head of the Prime Minister's office, acknowledged to the media on Tuesday. Mateusz Morawiecki.

In this way, the Executive that has governed the country since 2015 and that has moved Poland away from the EU more than ever due to the deterioration of the rule of law, its ultra-conservative policies or its steps backwards in terms of gender equality, is now trying to appease the spirits of a situation that has gotten out of hand.

This Wednesday, for the thirteenth consecutive day, some 430,000 people have demonstrated in more than 400 cities and towns against the Executive, according to the newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza.

The Constitutional ruling, controlled by judges related to the ruling party, agreed to prevent abortion in the event that the fetus suffers a malformation or irreversible disease.

This assumption represents 97% of the 1,100 interruptions of pregnancy that were practiced legally in the country last year.

But pro-abortion associations working in Poland estimate that every year between 100,000 and 150,000 Polish women abort by taking pills or in clinics in other countries.

“Most of the Polish women who ask us for help travel to the Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom to terminate their pregnancy,” says Mara Clarke, of the international organization Abortion Without Borders.

Last Friday, the President of the Republic, Andrezj Duda, in an attempt to appease spirits, also announced his intention to present a new bill in the

(Lower House) to legalize abortion in cases of serious fetal malformations "If the child's death is inevitable."

In his proposal, the diagnoses of fetuses of children with Down syndrome, for example, would remain unconstitutional.

Pro-life groups, also against the Government

Pro-life groups, an electorate loyal to PiS so far, have been furious with the proposal and with the paralysis of the Constitutional ruling.

"With the bill, the president is violating the rule of law and is turning against his voters," says Wojciech Zieba, president of the Defenders of Human Life association, by email.

"Duda's project is incompatible with the Constitution and with the ruling of the Constitutional Court of October 22, as well as with his electoral promises [before he was re-elected as president in July]," adds Zieba.

By not being officially published, the ruling against abortion remains in a kind of legal limbo that makes it difficult for women who want to interrupt their pregnancy right now, as well as the decision of doctors to carry out this practice.

"Until the sentence is published there is a lack of legal certainty for health professionals. And this, in a democratic state, should not happen", ditch by telephone Adam Krzywon, professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Warsaw.