President slams proposed tightening of abortion laws

President Komorowski: photo - PAP/Tomasz Gzell

“Civic Platform should defend at all costs what was a hard fought and wise political compromise,” he said of Poland's existing laws in an interview with the TVN 24 news channel.

The draft bill, which would ban so called eugenic abortions (which occur when the fetus is damaged) was brought forward by conservative minority party Solidarity Poland, and backed by larger conservative party Law and Justice.

Besides the latter two parties, forty MPs from Civic Platform voted in favour of allowing the bill to pass to a further stage of development, as did 19 MPs from junior coalition partner the Polish Peasant's Party. Some 28 Civic Platform MPs abstained.

“For me, this is a disturbing signal,” Komorowski said.

“Because I have always believed that one cannot violate a fragile but difficult compromise that nevertheless serves Poland,” he added.

The president claimed that the Civic Platform MPs who did not rejject the bill were mistakenly following to “a section of public opinion.”

Poland's present abortion laws only allow for the operation in the event of rape, if the mother's health is at grave risk, or if the fetus appears to be deformed. (nh)