Poland's pro-EU govt moves to override president's veto on emergency contraception

Poland’s pro-European Union coalition government took steps Friday to circumvent a veto by conservative President Andrzej Duda regarding prescription-free emergency contraception, a policy reversed by the previous nationalist administration.

During the eight-year rule of the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, Poland, a Catholic-majority nation, experienced a tightening of women’s reproductive rights, including the restriction of access to emergency contraception, which became prescription-only in 2017.

Since assuming power in December, the government led by former EU chief Donald Tusk has committed to easing these restrictions and passed a bill to allow over-the-counter access to the morning-after pill for girls and women aged 15 and above.

However, Duda vetoed the legislation, citing his commitment to upholding constitutional rights and maintaining standards of health protection for children, according to a statement from the presidency released on Friday. Duda, a staunch ally of the PiS and a devout Catholic, objected to the bill because it would provide access to the contraceptive pill “without medical supervision and bypassing the role and responsibility of parents.”

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While indicating a willingness to relax restrictions, Duda proposed limiting access to emergency contraception to women aged 18 and older.

The presidential veto sparked criticism from the ruling coalition, with Tusk expressing regret that Duda did not choose “to stand on the side of women” by supporting the bill.
Left senator Magdalena Biejat slammed what she called a “harmful” decision.

“Young girls should have access to (emergency contraception) just like adult women, because young girls can also get pregnant,” she told reporters.

“It’s a pity that the president is yet again against Polish women,” deputy education minister Katarzyna Lubnauer said on social media, adding that the government “knows how to deal with this obstacle.”

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- ‘Unwanted pregnancies’ -

Anticipating the presidential veto, the government had already announced it would bypass this by allowing pharmacists to give prescriptions for the pill.

“We’re launching Plan B,” Tusk wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, after Duda’s veto.

“If we don’t want women and young girls to get unwanted pregnancies, let’s do everything to make the pill as accessible as possible,” Health Minister Izabela Leszczyna had told RMF FM radio.

The World Health Organization says on its website that emergency contraception should be “routinely included” within all national family planning programmes.

The debate on the morning-after pill comes amid attempts to liberalise Poland’s abortion laws, one of Europe’s strictest.

Abortion is currently legal in Poland only if pregnancy results from sexual assault or incest, or threatens the life or health of the mother.

Four bills to liberalise the near-total ban have been submitted to the parliament, but work on them is yet to start, as the drafts waited for a green light from the lower house speaker to start debate.

Lower house speaker Szymon Holownia, who presents himself as a progressive Catholic, said he did not want to debate the bills while campaigning was on for local elections due in April.

With inputs from AFP