Polish Lawmakers Block Action on Tough Abortion Bill : Europe: Solidarity liberals and former Communists delay a vote until after the Pope’s visit.

Liberal veterans of Solidarity and former Communists managed Friday to block action on a church-supported bill that would have imposed one of Europe’s toughest bans on abortion.

A final Parliament vote on the anti-abortion bill was put off at least until mid-June, after a visit by Polish-born Pope John Paul II.

The Sejm, or lower house, voted for the delay, 208 to 145, with 14 abstentions.

A vote on the anti-abortion bill in the Sejm has been delayed repeatedly since a similar measure was adopted by the Senate in September.

Polls show that the majority of the public opposes the bill. Despite the poll results, lawmakers in this strongly Roman Catholic country are reluctant to risk the clergy’s censure by voting directly against the legislation.

Nonetheless, the vote was a rebuff to Poland’s powerful bishops two weeks before the Pope arrives for his first visit to his homeland since it launched itself on the road to democracy nearly two years ago.

The bishops campaigned hard for the bill. Some, who described supporters of abortion as unwitting servants of Satan, aroused signs of nascent anti-clericalism as they were accused of trying to impose their views on the country.

The Sejm’s decision appeared to dash the bishops’ hopes that Parliament would abolish the existing 1956 law, which allows abortion virtually on demand, before it dissolves to make way for general elections due by the end of October.

But many deputies agreed that the law, under which up to 600,000 abortions a year are carried out in an overwhelmingly Catholic country of 38 million people, must be changed.

The resolution moved by the Democratic Union Party--formed by liberal Solidarity activists who split with Lech Walesa last year--described abortion as “a social disaster.”

It said neither the bill nor a referendum could have brought about the necessary change in attitudes toward conceived life and asked the government to take action to rebuild “respect for human life and a feeling of responsibility for parenthood.”

The postponement was condemned Friday by anti-abortion demonstrators outside the Parliament.

“Further delay can bring more moral damage to a demoralized society,” said Jerzy Budzinski of a Gdansk anti-abortion group.

He accused the Democratic Union of “a typical pre-election strategy. They know that they grew out of the (pro-church) Solidarity ethos, but on the other hand they do not want to lose potential voters.”

If the anti-abortion bill had been passed, Poland would have become the only country in Europe, except for Ireland, to have a total abortion ban backed up by penalties of imprisonment.

The proposed law would not permit abortion even if the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest, or if it endangered the mother’s life.