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JUST IN: The Polish Constitutional Tribunal ruling on the abortion law has been published in the Journal of Laws, which means the near-total ban on abortion in Poland has come into force. What does it mean? https://dziennikustaw.gov.pl/D2021000017501.pdf 1/n
The ruling effectively *removes the legal possibility of terminating any pregnancy in case of even the most severe abnormalities*. From now on abortions are legal in Poland only if the pregnancy poses a threat to the mother's life or health, or if it results from rape/incest 2/n
In practice the number of legal abortions will be reduced to a few cases a year. In 2019 out of 1110 legal terminations in Poland 1074 were carried out due to foetal impairments. The number of domestic illegal and overseas abortions is estimated for 50-150.000 cases a year 3/n
What will happen now? Any already scheduled procedures will likely be cancelled - even though there are considerable doubts as for the legality of the ruling (see @BDStanley.s tweet) https://twitter.com/BDStanley/status/1354558760455446529?s=20 4/n
Since a part of the current law has been nullified by the ruling the lawmakers are obliged to pass a new abortion law following the advice provided in today's official interpretation issued by the Constitutional Tribunal. 5/n
The interpretation issued by the Tribunal on 27 Jan gives the lawmakers a leeway regarding the shape of the future abortion law. It calls for specifying criteria for lethal foetal abnormalities the presence of which would pose a threat to the woman's wellbeing. The supporters 6/n
...of the ruling seem to argue that there is plenty of room for "a new compromise". One of such proposals was put forward by President Duda in November 2020, but gathered little support from the ruling party. 7/n
The opponents argue that any such law will be stricter than the abolished one and that it will be prone to political bargaining between PiS and its small coalition partners such as United Poland, as well as other more radical political actors. 8/n
What is beyond doubt is that regardless of the shape of the future law, many patients with strong premises for pregnancy termination will be left with no options - the accessibility of abortion clinics abroad may be severely affected by the pandemic. 9/n
Since the Tribunal's ruling on 22 Oct Poland has experienced the greatest wave of protests since the fall of communism - this time under pro-choice and anti-government banners. Follow the hashtag #StrajkKobiet to see footage and comments on the topic. 10/10
