"Health and life of women are key, crucial. They're protected under the current law. If it needs to be more precise, then we will certainly make it so" - said Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki commenting on the recent Constitutional Tribunal ruling effectively banning abortion due to foetal defects. President Andrzej Duda and the First Lady have also issued their statements. Social outrage with the decision has been manifesting itself for a week now in huge street protests across the country. The PM has called for the mass protest scheduled for Friday in Warsaw to be cancelled.
On Wednesday, President Andrzej Duda said that he was ready to be involved in setting up a debate with experts on abortion issues, to find a solution that would protect children, but at the same would not make women suffer, as well as restore social order.
In an interview for Polsat, Duda stressed that "if a woman has to give birth to a child that will instantly die, she's being exposed to an unimaginable psychological and physical suffering".
Also the First Lady, Agata Kornhauser-Duda, said in Polsat News that she had doubts as to whether women "should be forced to heroism".
Asked about his take on the president's words, PiS party chairman Jarosław Kaczyński said on Wednesday: "He's the president. It's his right". He did not say, however, whether or not he agreed with the head of state.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said at a conference on Thursday that it was crucial to ask a question regarding the subject of the dispute at hand.
"In a closer look, we might say that this dispute is about children with Down syndrome could be born" - he said. "That's one part of this dispute. The other is possibly about people who would like to have unrestricted abortion rights" - Morawiecki added.
The head of the cabinet argued that "one can always try to settle a dispute through dialogue". He added that, in his view, the president has made himself clear on the issue.
In Morawiecki's opinion, "in each case when life or health of a woman is in danger, the disputed ruling of the Tribunal is ineffective".
"Health and life of women are key, crucial. They're protected under the current law. If it needs to be more precise, then we will certainly make it so".
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, PAP