Poland's Sejm passes two bills to ease abortion ban

The two bills passed separately in the Sejm, the lower house, on 20 October 2026, nearly three years after Prime Minister Donald Tusk's coalition took power promising to restore reproductive rights.

What the Sejm passed

One bill would reinstate terminations in cases of severe foetal abnormalities, the ground the Constitutional Tribunal struck down in 2020. The other removes criminal liability for people who help a woman obtain an abortion. Ordo Iuris, a legal group campaigning for a presidential veto, said the decriminalisation bill passed by a margin of four votes. It said 11 Law and Justice (PiS) MPs were absent and one abstained.

Katarzyna Kotula, the government's equality commissioner and a Left lawmaker, welcomed the result on X. "The state trusts women," she wrote, adding that it was time to stop punishing "everyone who loves us, worries about us and respects our choices".

The veto threat

Nawrocki, who is aligned with the opposition Law and Justice (PiS), has signalled he would block any liberalisation of the law. Ordo Iuris has appealed to him for a veto and said he will be under "enormous pressure" in the coming days. Reuters reported the legislation is "almost certain to be vetoed".

Poland's near-total ban took effect in 2021, after the Constitutional Tribunal ruled in 2020 that terminations because of foetal abnormalities were unconstitutional. The ruling set off mass protests in the predominantly Catholic country. Under the law as it stands, abortion is legal only in cases of rape or incest, or where the woman's health or life is at risk.

The coalition's record

Tusk's pro-European coalition won the 2023 election partly on a pledge to ease abortion restrictions. The protests against the tribunal ruling were later credited with helping propel him into power, on a promise to overhaul the law within 100 days. The government widened access under existing rules that allow abortion on mental health grounds. Tusk retreated last year from a pledge to legalise abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy, saying there was "simply no majority" for it. The two bills passed on 20 October are narrower: they cover foetal abnormalities and criminal liability, not the term limit.

What campaigners say it changes

Reproductive rights groups called the package minimal. Leah Hoctor, vice president for Europe at the Center for Reproductive Rights, told Reuters the bills "represent very limited small-scale reform" and "would not improve the situation for most women in Poland who need abortion care".

Hoctor said thousands of women in Poland obtain abortions every year, illegally or by travelling abroad. She added that even if both bills became law, Poland would remain "completely out of step with the rest of its EU peers". Legalna Aborcja, a Polish advocacy group, was blunter: "What does this mean for women who need an abortion right now? Nothing, because none of these bills would help them," a spokesperson said.

The Fundacja Widzialne announced rallies in 27 cities, timed to the sixth anniversary of the 2020 ruling that tightened the law. That ruling prompted the largest protests in Poland since the fall of communism. Organisers want full decriminalisation and abortion covered by the National Health Fund.

The Center for Reproductive Rights wants Tusk to impose an interim moratorium on all criminal law provisions covering abortion, an idea first floated by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, which in 2024 concluded that women in Poland faced severe human rights violations under the law.

The 12-week bill

A separate bill that would legalise abortion on request up to 12 weeks of pregnancy is under consideration in parliamentary committees.