WARSAW (Reuters) – Polish lawmakers started a debate on Wednesday to reinstate public financing for in-vitro fertilisation, marking a shift after eight years of nationalist rule which brought severe restrictions on women’s reproductive rights.
The Law and Justice government (PiS) lost its parliamentary majority in the Oct. 15 elections, paving the way for opposition parties from the centre-right to the left to form a ruling coalition.
They are expected to take over executive power later this year, and have pledged to undo PiS reforms that have raised international alarm over media freedom and democratic norms as well as women’s and minority rights.
Ending budgetary funding for IVF, which the Catholic church says is sinful, was one of the first policy decisions by PiS after it won elections in 2015 on a promise to bring more conservative values into public life.
“You took away the right to happiness, the right to have a child from the poorest Polish families,” said Barbara Nowacka, one of the leaders of the liberal Civic Coalition (KO), the biggest grouping within mainstream opposition.
Observers says women’s rights were a key factor behind record election turnout last month and the rise in support for mainstream opposition parties.
PiS had also mandated a prescription requirement for emergency contraception and, in 2021, implemented a near-total ban on abortion following a Constitutional Tribunal ruling that terminations due to foetal defects were unconstitutional.
Critics accused PiS of orchestrating that decision, pointing to court reforms many said had politicised the judiciary, although PiS denies both.
The Civic Platform and New Left have promised to introduce a right to abortion until 12 weeks, but this may prove difficult for now due to a more conservative approach of the centrist Third Way party and the fact that President Andrzej Duda, a PiS ally, would have to sign the bill into law.
(Reporting by Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk; Editing by Christina Fincher)
