The pro-European Polish government of Donald Tusk announced on Friday that it was launching its “plan B” to liberalize access to the morning-after pill in this country with a strong Catholic tradition. He thus counters the veto put a little earlier by the conservative president, Andrzej Duda, to this reform.
In accordance with its electoral promises, the pro-EU coalition, in power since December, adopted a bill aimed at allowing free access to the morning-after pill from the age of 15. Currently, its prescription is authorized in Poland only on medical prescription.
But Andrzej Duda, an ally of the populist nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, in power for eight years and an avowed Catholic, decided to "return the amendment to the law on pharmaceutical products to parliament with a request to review the law ( veto),” said a press release from the presidency on Friday. The head of state justified his refusal by respecting “standards for protecting children’s health”.
Andrzej Duda “cannot accept legal solutions allowing children under 18 to have access to contraceptive medications without medical supervision and without taking into account the role and responsibility of parents,” according to the press release. However, he “declared himself open to the solutions envisaged by the law in question, with regard to adult women (over 18 years of age)”.
“This pill will be available on pharmaceutical prescription”
“We are launching plan B”, reacted on X the Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, regretting that the president did not seize “the opportunity to place himself on the side of women”.
Prezydent nie skorzystał z okazji, żeby stanąć po stronie kobiet. Wdrażamy plan B.
— Donald Tusk (@donaldtusk) March 29, 2024
The government had announced that it would circumvent the president's obstruction by allowing pharmacists to issue prescriptions for the pill. “A regulation is in the final phase of consultations (…) This pill will be available on pharmaceutical prescription”, delivered by a pharmacist, from May 1, declared Friday the Minister of Health, Izabela Leszczyna. According to her, the president “behaved in a hypocritical manner”.
“We cannot declare ourselves defender of life, opposed to abortion, and at the same time affirm that emergency contraception, which is perfectly safe and available in 25 countries of the European Union, is a bad thing” , she told TV channel TVN24.
Also read: What is emergency contraception?
The vice-president of the upper house of parliament, Magdalena Biejat, of the Left Together party, also condemned the decision of the head of state, judging that young girls should have access to the morning-after pill like women adults, “because young girls can also get pregnant”. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), emergency contraception should be “systematically included” in all national family planning programs.
The battle for the liberalization of abortion
One year before the presidential election in Poland, the Minister of Education, Barbara Nowacka, hoped that her country would “never again know a president who hides behind an ideology or a confession to avoid showing himself to be a supporter of rights , health and safety of girls and women.
The debate over the morning-after pill coincides with attempts to liberalize Poland's abortion laws, one of the strictest in Europe. Abortion is currently only legal if the pregnancy results from rape or incest, or threatens the life or health of the mother. Abortion is even prohibited in the event of fetal malformation.
Also read “Help us! »: the appeal of Justyna Wydrzyńska, figure in the fight for abortion in Poland
Four bills aimed at liberalizing abortion have already been submitted to parliament, but work has not started, awaiting the green light from the president of the lower house. The latter, Szymon Holownia, who declares himself a progressive Catholic and who has already expressed his ambitions to become head of state, explains the delay by the wish to avoid this debate during the campaign for the local elections scheduled for April.