Bills To Liberalise Polish Abortion Law Pass First Hurdle

Four bills submitted by Poland's ruling coalition to ease the near-total abortion ban on Friday passed a first hurdle in parliament amid a heated debate on relaxing one of Europe's strictest reproductive laws.

The alliance of pro-EU parties came to power in the devoutly Catholic country on a pledge to legalise abortion following eight years of conservative rule under the right-wing PiS party.

On Friday, lawmakers voted down motions to reject the reforms in the first reading and decided to send them all to a special parliamentary commission for further proceedings.

"We keep our word! The parliament will proceed with all projects on the right to abortion," the Civic Coalition grouping of Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on social media after the vote.

Polish women's rights groups and activists hailed the results of the vote as "historic".

"For the first time since 1996, projects liberalising access to abortion in Poland will proceed to the second reading. This is a historic moment," Kamila Ferenc from the Federation for Women and Family Planning said on social media.

The hotly-anticipated vote was a test for the governing alliance as some coalition lawmakers were reluctant to back the legislation.

"We voted for all the projects. We did it out of respect for democracy and concern for the durability of the coalition," the parliament's speaker Szymon Holownia said on social media after the vote.

But even if parliament gives its final approval for the reforms, President Andrzej Duda, a conservative Catholic ally of the right-wing opposition PiS, is unlikely to sign them into law.

The ruling bloc -- comprising Tusk's Civic Coalition and junior partners Third Way and Left -- does not have the required three-fifths majority to overturn a presidential veto.

In case of a standoff, the alliance may have to wait until next year's presidential elections, hoping for Duda's ouster by a liberal candidate.

"I would like this (special) commission to finish its work before the presidential elections," Natalia Broniarczyk from the Abortion Dream Team nonprofit organisation told reporters after the vote.

"I have a very serious question to all presidential candidates... what will you do with the bill that will come out of this commission?" she added.

According to an opinion poll by Ipsos, 35 percent of Poles are in favour of allowing abortion until the 12th week of pregnancy, while 14 percent said they would keep the current rules.

Twenty-three percent want a referendum on liberalising the abortion law, a solution backed by Third Way but strongly criticised by women's rights campaigners.

Polish anti-abortion groups have closed ranks against the reforms, organising a Catholic mass and a rally "to defend life" outside parliament on Thursday.

Hundreds attended the rally, where they chanted prayers and held up signs with slogans such as "abortion kills".