Poland Starts Work on Total Abortion Ban Amid Culture Clash
- Catholic country already has one of EU’s most restrictive laws
- Bill would put Poland in small global group with total ban
People attend an anti-abortion demonstration in front of the Polish Pariament in Warsaw on Sept. 22.
Photographer: Wojtek Radwanski/AFP via Getty ImagesPolish lawmakers sent a bill banning all abortions and curbing sex education for further work in a parliamentary committee, opening a new front in the conservative government’s cultural “counter-revolution” that has already roiled the economy and justice system.
Religious groups loosely supported by the ruling Law & Justice party have proposed the bill to tighten what’s already one of the European Union’s most-restrictive regulations. While the current law limits abortions to pregnancies stemming from rape or incest, and cases where the mother or fetus faces serious health risk, they want a total ban that would put the Roman Catholic country of 38 million in a group of eight states that includes El Salvador, Guatemala and the Vatican.