One year ago, the president submitted a draft amendment to the abortion law in the Sejm, but the lower house still has not started works over the bill. Deputy Speaker of the chamber, Ryszard Terlecki from the ruling PiS party, said that "it's being prepared somewhere, but frankly speaking, it's not in the Sejm at the moment". He also told journalists that "maybe we need to speed some things up".
A year has passed since the Constitutional Tribunal issued its ruling which tightened Poland's already strict abortion rules. Now, questions are being asked again about potential changes that would provide support to women having pregnancy complications.
Such support was promised by PiS, while President Andrzej Duda has submitted his draft amendment to the Sejm.
Shortly after the constitutional court passed the verdict, in late October 2020, Poland's president submitted a draft legislation in the parliament, that would make the strict abortion law more liberal. The presidential bill assumes the right to a legal abortion in case of lethal defects of the foetus.
Deputy Speaker of the Sejm on presidential draft: it's being prepared somewhere
Deputy Speaker of the Sejm, Ryszard Terlecki from PiS, was asked about the draft legislation submitted by President Duda.
"It's being prepared somewhere, but frankly speaking, it's not in the Sejm at the moment," he said. "It's not in the next session's agenda," Terlecki replied to a remark that the presidential project has been submitted a year ago.
In his response to TVN24 reporter's remark that women have been left all by themselves, Terlecki said: "Indeed, maybe we need to speed some things up".
Nowacka: PiS offers torture chambers at maternity wards
Civic Coalition MP Barbara Nowacka also commented on the situation.
"It's unbelievable, so many words, so many stories about rooms for crying one's eyes. While what PiS actually offers pregnant women, are torture chambers at maternity wards," she said.
"And yet this their approach towards women, I'm not really surprised, as they have based their authority on lies. It seems paradoxical that they particularly target poor women, women from deprived areas, which is where they mostly seek voters," the MP added.
Nowacka, along with other female Civic Coalition MPs, have demanded parliamentary commissions of justice and health look into the recent death of a 30-year-old pregnant woman in a hospital in Pszczyna.
The woman died of septic shock in her 22nd week of pregnancy. According to a lawyer for the family, the doctors did not perform an abortion, even though her foetus was lacking amniotic fluid.
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, TVN24
Źródło zdjęcia głównego: TVN24