Poland's parliament votes to progress toward easing abortion restrictions

euronews (in English)

Ewa Schaedler from the Third Way party called the vote ''symbolic'' and ''a breakthrough'' for Polish women. However the subject remains divisive in the mostly Catholic country.

Transcript

00:00 The Polish Parliament has voted to end the country's near-total abortion ban.

00:06 Rules were tightened under the former Law and Justice Government.

00:10 In the Catholic-majority country, abortion has been allowed in cases of rape, incest or if the mother's life is at risk.

00:17 We support 130 women to have an abortion every day.

00:21 More than hundreds take abortion pills at their own home.

00:25 They're usually sourced from the internet, from women and from other reliable providers.

00:30 Some of them travel abroad because they are more than 12 months pregnant and need to go to the clinic abroad.

00:36 We support them also financially and as a network of abortion-free donors,

00:41 we counted that we spent more than 11 million euro in the last years.

00:46 Four proposals to ease restrictions were put to the Parliament,

00:50 including one from the Prime Minister's party legalising abortion up to 12 weeks.

00:57 I'm sorry, but today is a symbolic day, a turning point,

01:01 a day that our daughters and granddaughters will probably remember.

01:06 Something that was impossible to break for 30 years has happened.

01:11 After 23 different attempts to change our law on abortion,

01:18 all of them were rejected after the first reading, and today we've achieved success.

01:24 Recent polls show more people are in favour of changing the rules.

01:28 Any changes, though, have to be signed into law by President Andrzej Duda,

01:33 who's aligned with the former populist government.

01:36 I voted for the rejection of each of the four proposals.

01:39 I think that each of them is against the Polish constitution, so it requires rejection.

01:44 Even though change appears to be coming,

01:47 activists who've been fighting for the liberalisation of the law for years

01:51 aren't claiming victory just yet.

01:54 I think that's the first battle that was won, but there are a lot many more ahead of us,

01:59 and we will just have to see.

02:01 There is a lot of work to be done in the parliamentary committee.

02:04 We'll still have to see who will be appointed to sit in that committee,

02:07 and then we'll be working further on abortion bills.

02:10 I would say that this is a glimpse of hope, but we are far away from the actual win.

02:15 Poland's vote to open a debate on liberalisation of the right to abortion

02:20 coincides with the EU Parliament's favour of including abortion in the Charter of Fundamental Rights.

02:26 Magdalena Chudowni, for Euronews, from Warsaw.

02:29 [SWOOSH]

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