'Sculpting within the law': Where does Poland stand on abortion?

• Election takes place May 18
• Abortion rights activists disappointed by lack of action
• Tusk promised change but hamstrung by coalition divisions

WARSAW - Two years after Donald Tusk became Poland's prime minister and promised to reform strict abortion rules, many of the women who supported him are disillusioned and say a May 18 presidential vote is unlikely to bring the change they were promised. 

This is despite the fact that a liberal candidate could replace conservative President Andrzej Duda, who has long opposed easing some of Europe's strictest abortion laws.  

"I'm still shocked that they reached for our votes when they needed them, and then completely discarded us," said activist Anna Pięta, who helped create a viral campaign that urged women to vote in 2023. 

In that election, abortion rights were front and centre after years of protests by black-clad women and their allies, especially after the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) government introduced a near-total ban on terminations in 2021.

Analysts widely credited women voters for PiS challenger Civic Platform's victory then, with Tusk promising to liberalise abortion laws within 100 days - a pledge later abandoned due to his anti-abortion coalition partners. 

While Tusk has failed to fully decriminalise abortion, he has introduced guidelines to protect doctors performing legal abortions and clarify that procedures involving health risks should not face prosecution. 

But many of his voters have lost hope.

"If you spend months taking to the streets, protesting and harbouring enormous hope that something will eventually change, and then absolutely nothing changes ... you simply become exhausted by the lack of agency," said Katarzyna Wężyk, a journalist and author of the book "Abortion Is".   

Debate sidelined

In this month's vote, abortion rights have been overshadowed by concerns about security, economic stability and broader healthcare reform, and presidential hopefuls have avoided talking much about abortion.

Liberal frontrunner and Warsaw mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, the Civic Platform candidate, promised to sign legislation allowing abortions up to 12 weeks. But he has focused on other issues, including migration, to try to woo conservative voters.

Karol Nawrocki, a conservative historian backed by the PiS party, has made clear he would keep the current restrictions in place.

Experts say neither side wants to spotlight their past records.

"When Law and Justice restricted abortion access in 2021, they paid heavily and never recovered," Wężyk said. "For the (governing) Civic Coalition, having failed to deliver on their promises, there's no political advantage in highlighting the issue either."  

Only the New Left candidate, Magdalena Biejat, who is the deputy speaker of the Senate, has consistently spoken about abortion rights. 

"As president, I would not only support liberalisation allowing abortion up to 12 weeks without justification, but I would submit my own legislative initiative on this matter," she told Context in an email. 

Polls predict that Trzaskowski will win the first round of voting with 31% and face Nawrocki, who is polling at 25%, in the runoff. 

'Witch-hunt'

Abortion only became a top campaign issue in March when far-right candidate Grzegorz Braun stormed a hospital and confronted a doctor who had lawfully performed a legal late termination.

The procedure was carried out on a patient, known only as Anita, who was misinformed by her doctors and learned late in her pregnancy that the fetus had severe abnormalities and would likely not survive birth.

Anita sought help after psychiatrists confirmed a threat to her mental health. After initially being forcefully detained in a psychiatric ward, she received the procedure at a hospital in the town of Oleśnica when she was 36 weeks pregnant.

"What we're seeing is a witch-hunt straight from the American anti-abortion playbook," said Wężyk. "There have been death threats against the doctor, and her address was posted online."

Kamila Ferenc, Anita's legal representative and vice-president of the Foundation for Women and Family Planning (Federa), said the case is emblematic of the reality of abortion access in Poland.

"Pregnant patients are rarely given proper medical information. The way information is presented - especially with fetal abnormalities - steers them toward specific decisions," she said. 

'Sculpting within the law'

The previous PiS government's near-total ban allowed abortions only in cases of rape, incest or threats to the mother's health or life. 

In rape and incest cases, a prosecutor must confirm the crime within 12 weeks, which can be difficult because most people are not ready to report so quickly, Ferenc said.

Despite the restrictions, the number of legal abortions in Poland has been gradually rising since 2021.    

"We're sculpting within the law. One doctor might respond to a legal argument, another to a political one ... and yet another might be swayed by promotional reasons, like wanting to present themselves as pro-woman," Ferenc said.

In the absence of state support, NGOs have stepped up.

Abortion Without Borders, a coalition of nine NGOs across Europe, helps women travel abroad or order abortion pills online. Advocacy group Abortion Dream Team recently opened an abortion centre in Warsaw. Federa fights for access to legal procedures in hospitals.

"Poles have gotten pretty skilled at bypassing the abortion ban," Wężyk said. 

Ferenc anticipates that if Trzaskowski wins, there will be a fleeting window of opportunity as his coalition rallies behind him.

But if that opportunity is not seized, "we'll be right back where we were after the 2023 elections - cutting off the conversation, with no systemic change in sight," she said

(Reporting by Ada Petriczko; Editing by Clar Ni Chonghaile and Ayla Jean Yackley)