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?

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.  

Among the things that had galvanized so many people had been the assurances by Donald Tusk and his Civic Coalition, that they would reform Poland’s dangerous and draconian abortion law which only allows terminations in cases of rape, incest or risk to the pregnant person’s health or life. While abortion had already been severely restricted in Poland since 1993, a ruling from Poland’s discredited Constitutional Tribunal in 2020, which went into effect the following year, removed one of the legal grounds for abortion – in cases of fetal impairment – and leaving a near-total ban.

If elected, Doland Tusk promised he would make access to free, safe and legal abortion for all a reality within 100 days of coming into power.

And yet those 100 days have come and gone and a year after Tusk swept to power, the possibility of Poland providing access to safe and legal abortion for all who need it, seems as distant as ever.

In July 2024, the Parliament failed to vote through a bill tabled in an effort to undo the harm caused by the rolling back of the abortion law during PiS’s rule and the 2020 judgment of the PiS-controlled Constitutional Tribunal.

The bill, which also proposed to end the criminalization of “aiding with an abortion”, was defeated by members of the ruling coalition, the Polish People’s Party (PSL) who voted it down alongside members of PiS and other conservatives.

Both PSL and centrist Poland 2050 politicians have spoken in favour of reinstating a “compromise” abortion law dating back to 1993, which allowed for terminations in cases of severe or fatal fetal impairment in addition to the current legal grounds. Alternatively, they have suggested putting the matter to vote in a referendum. Both these propositions are contrary to international human rights law and standards, which require Poland to decriminalize abortion and guarantee access to safe abortion to all who need it without discrimination and with respect to personal autonomy and human rights.

In August, Donald Tusk said, matter-of-factly, that it will not be possible to get a parliamentary majority to support the revision of the abortion law until the next election. The implication of this statement is that no further efforts will be made to push through reform for at least another three years.

But for Polish women, girls and any person who can become pregnant, waiting three years is not an option.

Since the perilous restrictions came into force in January 2021, they have been keenly felt and have had sometimes tragic consequences for women and their families.  A  “chilling effect” has meant that doctors are more likely not to take lifesaving steps for pregnant patients and since the ruling restricting the law came into force, several women lost their lives.

New guidelines on abortion that the government issued in August were presented as a measure that would help mitigate the “chilling effect” on healthcare staff. Yet, while they clarify that mental health grounds should be respected in the same way as other health grounds for abortion, they also simply reiterate the very limited circumstances in which legal abortions can be performed.

Polish women are well used to broken promises and to our votes being instrumentalized. We were under no illusion that the much-needed change would come thanks to the political goodwill of any man happening to lead our next government. Because we have been at the forefront of this change.

Polish women have been organising, marching and facing arrest. They have been pursuing legal challenges in the courts and lobbying the politicians in parliament. They have been doing grassroots reproductive rights work in Poland and abroad and some – like Justyna Wydrzyńska – have provided abortion pills to those in need and been prosecuted as a result.

And despite the risk of criminalization, we are continuing to take our reproductive health and autonomy into our own hands. The women-led grassroots organization Abortion Dream Team is crowdfunding to open the first abortion clinic in the country. And in September, the longstanding Federation for Women and Family Planning (FEDERA) opened its first sexual and reproductive health clinic in Warsaw.  

Women cannot keep dying from gender-based violence committed by our own state. The government’s lack of action on abortion is reckless, cruel and dangerous. It is utterly unacceptable for women and girls to be forced to continue running the gauntlet of the current parlous abortion law for another three years. More lives will be lost. Prime Minister Tusk and the other leaders of the coalition parties need to wake up and recognize our human right to abortion, accessed freely, safely and legally, in Polish law. 

The man  so many women elected as Prime Minister must uphold his promise and work with rights holders, civil society and experts to bring his coalition partners to a place where legal abortion in Poland becomes a reality.