The Sejm committee on abortion law will meet on Oct. 8 for the first time in more than two years. Its agenda includes two bills, parliament speaker Włodzimierz Czarzasty said.
The meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. at the request of lawmaker Dorota Łoboda. One bill, proposed by the Polish People’s Party and Poland 2050, would restore the option of abortion in cases of severe and irreversible fetal defects. Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal removed that ground from the law in 2020.
The second bill would remove criminal penalties for assisting an abortion. Representatives of all governing-coalition parliamentary groups signed it. A Left party lawmaker involved in the issue told Gazeta.pl she expected the committee to approve both proposals.
The committee, set up to consider abortion-law changes, had not met for more than two years. A meeting planned for Sept. 14 was canceled. The official reason was that the Health Ministry had not issued an opinion on one of the proposals. Gazeta.pl reported that, unofficially, Prime Minister Donald Tusk was concerned that reopening the debate could deepen divisions in the governing coalition.
Left party lawmakers had considered dissolving the special committee or submitting a new bill through the Sejm’s social policy and family committee. The decision to resume work followed pressure from the Left and a meeting between Czarzasty and Tusk, the outlet reported.