Poland abortion law vote tests Tusk coalition

Poland’s parliament is set to vote on Tuesday on two bills that would ease some of the country’s abortion restrictions, testing divisions inside Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing coalition.

One bill, submitted by Tusk’s Civic Coalition and the Left, would partially decriminalise terminating a pregnancy and decriminalise assisting abortion, which can currently be punished by up to three years in prison.

A second bill, submitted by the more conservative coalition partners Poland 2050 and the Polish Peasants’ Party, would reverse the effects of a 2020 Constitutional Tribunal ruling that made abortion illegal in cases of severe fetal deformity.

Abortion in Poland is currently allowed only when a pregnancy results from a criminal act, such as rape or incest, or when it threatens the life or health of the pregnant woman. Before the 2020 ruling, 98% of legal abortions in Poland were performed because of severe fetal abnormalities.

Poland’s National Health Fund said public hospitals carried out 573 abortions in the first half of 2026, after 851 in all of 2025.

The outcome of the votes remains uncertain because of differences inside the governing coalition and the position of the right-wing opposition. Any parliamentary attempt to ease abortion laws would likely face a veto from conservative-nationalist President Karol Nawrocki, who was endorsed by the Law and Justice party that backed the 2020 ruling.