At the end of 2019, a group of 119 deputies from three parties of the Lower House of Poland (the Sejm) presented an appeal before the Constitutional Court that questioned abortion for eugenic reasons. The initiative was led by MPs Bartłomiej Wróblewski and Piotr Uściński in 2019.
In Poland, abortion is recognized as a crime, but there are three grounds for exception or legitimation: (1) when the pregnancy represents a threat to the health or life of the mother; (2) when the pregnancy is the result of a crime; and (3) when prenatal tests or other medical considerations suggest a high probability of terminal illness or serious and irreversible deterioration of the baby. This third cause, according to data from the Ministry of Health, was used for 97% of abortions committed in the country.
Abortion was practically free in Poland during the communist regime, in 1990, with democratization the first restrictions were established, leaving only the first two exceptions mentioned above; and through the Law of Family Planning, Protection of Human Embryos and Conditions of Admissibility of Abortion (hereinafter FPA), of January 7, 1993, the third cause was introduced, in Article 4. The motion filed by the legislators questions the constitutionality of that article.
In its judgment of October 22, 2020 (K 1/20) the Constitutional Court determined that article 4a (1) (2) of the FPA is incompatible with article 38 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, which states: “The Republic of Poland will guarantee the legal protection of the life of every human being”; in conjunction with articles 30 and 31, which oblige the public powers to ensure the inviolability of this and other rights and freedoms. The sentence entered into force on January 27, 2021, making abortion illegal for eugenic reasons (embryonic pathology).
Full texts:
01 | Appeal for the declaration of the unconstitutionality of eugenic abortion
119 deputies of the Sejm | Poland | 2019
Original document in Polish
English translation: available from June 21.
02 | Sentence K 1/20
Constitutional Court | Poland | 2020
Original document in Polish
Spanish translation: available from June 21.
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