Polish Lawmakers Reverse Restrictions on Abortion

By an eight-vote margin, Polish lawmakers on Thursday relaxed this country’s controversial abortion law, allowing women to terminate pregnancies until the 12th week if they are financially or emotionally unprepared to have a child.

The law, which reverses restrictions imposed almost four years ago at the behest of the Roman Catholic Church, was approved despite a groundswell of public protests and heavy pressure from Catholic officials, including Pope John Paul II.

“It is a victory for the poorest and least educated women in our country,” said Wanda Nowicka, who heads the Federation for Women and Family Planning, a Warsaw group that pushed for the changes. “In Poland, just like in many countries, restrictions mainly affect the poor and uneducated. Those who have money find a way to manage.”

Polish Bishop Tadeusz Pieronek, in Vatican City, warned that authors of the law will bear moral responsibility for its provisions. Meanwhile, the pope was reported to have received news of the vote with “profound pain.”

“It is a very sad day for all believers and nonbelievers,” said Father Marian Subocz, deputy secretary-general of the Polish bishops’ conference in Warsaw.

A small group of antiabortion activists gathered outside the Polish Parliament, praying and intoning names of the legislators who voted in favor of the new law while lighting candles arranged to form a crucifix on the sidewalk.

One man carried a photograph of Jerzy Popieluszko, a popular Solidarity-era priest who was kidnapped and killed in 1984 by the Communist secret police.

The abortion vote, coming a day after legislators decided that former Communist leader Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski should not be prosecuted for imposing martial law in the early 1980s, was taken as a particular affront by antiabortion activists with ties to the Solidarity movement.

“Black clouds are looming over our homeland again,” said Marian Jurkiewicz, a retired tractor factory worker and Solidarity activist. “It is very painful to see a law that allows the killing of innocent children be approved by the same people who allowed the killing of our hero, Father Popieluszko.”

The bulk of the votes to liberalize the abortion law was provided by the former Communists, who dominate the ruling coalition. But the measure would not have passed without a spattering of support from two opposition parties, both with some ties to the Solidarity movement.

Members of the Polish Peasant Party, junior partners in the ruling coalition, voted overwhelmingly against the changes.

Parliamentary supporters of the new law, which also provides for mandatory sex education programs in schools and cheaper contraceptives, expressed satisfaction with the vote.

But there was no mood of celebration. With parliamentary elections scheduled next year, legislators said they expect abortion to be a key issue in the campaign. They fear a backlash if conservatives win control of the next Parliament.

“I am absolutely sure there will be attempts to make the law even stricter than it was,” said Izabela Jaruga-Nowacka, sponsor of the changes approved Thursday. “We were afraid of it from the very beginning.”

Leaders of the Solidarity trade union have recently put together an alliance of pro-Catholic and right-wing parties that intends to run as an electoral bloc in next year’s election. With abortion one of the group’s top concerns, it helped mobilize a series of public protests against the proposed measure, as well as a petition drive that collected 3 million signatures.

Stanislaw Kowolik, an official with a member party of the Solidarity alliance, said opponents of the new law will not wait until next year’s elections to try to undo its provisions.

Lawyers were already working Thursday, he said, to draft an appeal to the Polish Constitutional Court, challenging the constitutionality of a law that “violates the basic right to life and social justice.”

“It is important to view this vote as a setback, not a defeat,” said Kowolik, a member of Parliament. “Our movement is growing day by day. This has charged people’s batteries, not drained them.”

Public opinion polls have consistently shown that a majority of Poles favor easing abortion restrictions.