In the Sejm about decriminalization and decriminalization of abortion

The amendments concern the wording of Article 152 of the Penal Code ("whoever, with the consent of the woman, terminates her pregnancy in violation of the law, shall be punished by imprisonment for up to three years"), also provides for the same punishment for assisting a pregnant woman to terminate her pregnancy in violation of the law or for inducing her to have an abortion, while in the case of termination of pregnancy when the conceived child has reached the capacity to live independently outside the pregnant woman's body, the prison sentence is from six months to eight years.

The Left's draft proposes the partial decriminalization and decriminalization of abortions with the pregnant woman's consent by expanding this article:

- "does not commit a crime who, with the consent of the woman, terminates her pregnancy if no more than 12 weeks have passed since the beginning of the pregnancy" and

- is not subject to punishment "who, with a woman's consent, terminates her pregnancy if prenatal tests or other medical indications point to a high probability of severe and irreversible impairment of the fetus or an incurable disease threatening its life."

Speaking on behalf of the petitioners, Anna Maria Zhukovskaya stressed that the laws providing for imprisonment for performing or assisting a woman's elective abortion are very harsh and out of step with modern realities. Because of this, she said, a woman in need of help is left alone. - The changes, she said, are intended to provide a sense of security for doctors so that instead of wondering whether they will incur criminal liability by terminating a pregnancy, they will help the women who come to them.

Attorney Sabrina Mana-Walasek, standing counsel for the commission, assured that the draft amendments to the Criminal Code do not violate the Constitution and are in line with the axiological assumptions of criminal law. In her speech, the lawyer paid special attention to Article 30 of the Constitution, which speaks of inviolable human dignity, and Article 38 on the legal protection of life. - We cannot downplay these provisions. But we are not able, nor probably is anyone able, to resolve when life begins and when the legal protection of life begins," she said. According to the lawyer, neither Article 30. nor 38. protects life from conception. - But such protection does exist in Polish laws, only that in the Family Planning Law, she admitted.

Criminal law specialist Dr. Ewa Plebanek of the Cracow University of Economics stressed that the authors of the draft "aptly defined the social problems associated with the topic of abortion." She noted that laws criminalizing the performance and assistance of abortion at the will of the woman, written in the 1990s, do not take into account changes that have occurred since then, including in abortion methods (availability of pharmacological abortion). This causes law enforcement agencies to deal - most often on the basis of notices coming from the woman's immediate circle - with "perpetrators" who are guilty of helping her obtain the abortion pill. This leads to paradoxical situations in which the fact of the transfer of such a drug is enough to bring charges, regardless of whether it is taken or not.

- The Constitution on abortion and the protection of conceived life is silent. In the case of the protection of conceived life, this silence of the Constitution is deliberate and intentional. The strategy of not enshrining the protection of social life in the Constitution can be called a decision not to decide. Therefore, it is up to the legislator to choose the means, but also the ends, to which this protection of conceived life is to be implemented," argued Dr. Anna Śledzińska-Simon, a constitutionalist from the University of Wroclaw, in turn.

Expert speeches dominated Tuesday's meeting, and the parliamentary part of the discussion clearly differed from them in level. - Abortion is a crime that no law can make acceptable. We can't introduce legislation that mitigates the punishment of those who commit the crime of abortion and, in fact, introduce legislation that wants to introduce abortion on demand," said Agnieszka Gorska (Law and Justice), calling for the immediate rejection of the bill. Former Health Minister Katarzyna Sójka spoke in a similar vein. - For us, a fetus is life from the first day, from the beginning. And I, as a doctor, can confirm this," she stressed.

The next meeting of the committee is scheduled for June 25.