In the Sejm about abortion: genocide vs hell for women

The Extraordinary Commission, to which the Sejm in April referred two projects of the Left (one assuming the decriminalization of abortion, the other - legalizing the termination of pregnancy up to 12 weeks at a woman's request), one of the KO (identical in substance to the second project of the Left) and two clubs of the Third Way (its sense is to restore the shape of the legislation before the October 2020 judgment of the Constitutional Court of Julia Przyłębska, which declared the so-called "eugenic premise" unconstitutional. eugenic premise as unconstitutional), decided to hold a public hearing before proceeding.

Thirty organizations and 307 individuals signed up to participate. Organizations were given four minutes each to present their positions, individuals were given two minutes each. The order of speaking was determined by the date of submission. The hearing was scheduled for eleven hours, eventually ending after eight. The hearing was very peaceful at first, the second part, when individuals took the floor, was not short of incidents - opponents of the liberalization of regulations attacked representatives, and in fact representatives of prochoice organizations, taking advantage of the clear numerical advantage they had.

- To anyone who wants an abortion, I say today: you want an abortion, abort yourself. We, citizens, defenders of life, inform the High Commission that we are implementing monitoring of your actions. Everything you do, your every move will be closely watched," Kaja Godek, whose speech, which can be considered symbolic, opened the public hearing, said to the MPs. More or less veiled threats against the MPs also appeared in other speeches. But many representatives of prolife circles also stressed that they would fight to maintain the current law with more conventional methods: collecting signatures on a petition to MPs, organizing phone calls to parliamentarians or organizing marches for life and family across the country.

The dispute was about everything, including who has the upper hand (except in the room where the meeting was held). Defenders of life claimed that millions of Poles stand behind them, and that "abortionists" are a dying species. Those in favor of liberalizing the laws cited opinion polls showing that the vast majority of Poles want the law changed (the differences are only in the degree of liberalization, but the laws after Julia Przyłębska's CT ruling are socially unacceptable).

During the meeting, conflicting motions were made, of course, ranging from those to make the most far-reaching drafts (i.e., legalizing abortion on demand up to at least 12 weeks of pregnancy) the basis of the work, to those to reject them outright, or at least to obtain several independent expert opinions from constitutionalists on whether the drafts comply with the Basic Law.