2023-12-18 14:15 update: 2023-12-19, 16:52
Szymon Hołownia. Photo PAP/Tomasz Gzell
Szymon Holownia, the leader of Poland 2050, one of parties in new coalition government, has said the country should act swiftly and return to the old abortion compromise law that was in place until 2020.
Holownia, who is also speaker of the Sejm, the lower house of parliament, was taking part in the 'Women's Elections' podcast for the website Onet on Sunday.
During the conversation, he said Poland should go back to the long-standing compromise that formed the country's abortion law for much of the post-communist period.
The compromise, so called because it balanced the demands of the Catholic Church with demands for access to abortion, was struck in 1993, and permitted the procedure under a limited number of circumstances.
However, in 2020 the compromise fell by the wayside when the Constitutional Tribunal, Poland's top court, found aspects of it unconstitutional, and thereby restricted the practice even further.
Abortion is now permitted only if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, or if it threatens the health or life of the mother.
"We should return as soon as possible to the state of affairs before this disgraceful judgement," Holownia said in reference to the ruling.
According to its critics, the ruling has had a further impact on the lives of Polish women because medical staff fearing legal consequences for terminating pregnancies even though that are permissible under the law, have refused to carry out the procedure.
As a result, a number of women have died in Polish hospitals due to an infection or complications during their pregnancies.
"We cannot languish for years in this dispute. We must act as soon as possible, use the tools that are at the disposal of the executive," said Holownia.
"I am talking about the minister of health," he went on to say. "So that women, when they are pregnant, are not afraid to go to hospital, so that they are not afraid to be examined, and so that doctors are not afraid to make decisions when a woman's health and life are at risk."
"(We need - PAP) to get rid of the hot breath of the prosecutor standing over them (medical staff - PAP)," he stressed, "and making it so that everything unfortunately ends in death."
This move should, according to Holownia, take precedence, because it is a realistic one in the current political climate.
Holownia also called for a referendum on unconditional access to abortion up to 12 weeks. He added that personally he is opposed to the idea, but is willing to hear the voices of Polish women, and leave the issue to the personal judgement of each Pole.
"Let's get on with preparing the referendum," he said.
"If the change is to be sustainable and not overturned again it has to get broad support," he added. "Because if it doesn't, another team will come along, with them another change, and out of that comes even more misery." (PAP)
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