Polish government issues new guidelines to ease abortion access

WARSAW, Poland (AFP) — Poland on Friday presented new guidelines aimed at easing the country’s severe restrictions on abortion, pressing prosecutors to recognize damage to a woman’s mental health as grounds for legally undergoing the procedure.

Poland has a near-total ban on abortion in place and also outlaws abortion assistance, which is punishable by up to three years in jail.

Women can only get an abortion in Polish hospitals if the pregnancy results from sexual assault or incest or poses a direct threat to the life or health of the mother.

The Polish government said on Friday that a risk to a woman’s mental health should also be recognized as sufficient grounds to terminate a pregnancy under the existing law.

With the new guidelines, “doctors do not have to fear the prosecutor’s office when they make decisions about access to legal abortion due to health risks, for example mental health,” center-right Prime Minister Donald Tusk told reporters.

Polish women’s rights groups have argued that the law banning abortion assistance has had a chilling effect on doctors who fear terminating pregnancies even if there are legal grounds to do so.

The latest legislative efforts to change these rules failed.

The governing coalition was unable to garner enough support in parliament to pass a bill that would decriminalize abortion assistance, despite its preelection pledges to do so.

The new guidelines “cannot, of course, change the law … but they do change the attitude of the prosecution and doctors,” Tusk said.

Last week, Tusk conceded there was “simply no majority” to deliver on his party pledge to allow abortion until the 12th week of pregnancy in the current term of the parliament.

“There will be no majority in this parliament for legal abortion, in the full sense of the word, until the next elections. Let’s not fool ourselves,” Tusk said.

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By Agence France-Presse