Under the current law, Polish women can only access an abortion if their life is at risk or if the pregnancy was the result of a crime.
ADVERTISEMENTFour legislative proposals on abortion are set to be considered by lawmakers in Poland on Thursday, four months after the country's right-wing government was ousted.
Women's rights activists are concerned that the three bills set to legalise or decriminalise abortion will be shot down by a minority right-wing government alliance.
One of the proposals is from the coalition of Prime Minister Donald Tusk and would legalise abortion until the 12th week of pregnancy.
A fourth bill from a conservative political party would return the country to the restrictive 1993 abortion law.
A 2020 court ruling further reduced abortion access, determining that women could no longer terminate pregnancies due to foetal defects.
Lawmakers will vote on Friday on whether to send the new legislative proposals to a special commission.
"We were supposed to watch the debate [with other women's rights organisations] but we were banned from watching the debate from the parliament gallery, in spite of being officially registered," Marta Lempart, co-founder of the Polish Women’s Strike movement, told Euronews Health.
Women's Strike organised mass anti-government protests across Poland in response to the further restricting of abortion laws.
"We are fighting for the legalisation and decriminalisation bills to be put into committee. This was the minimum that we deserved with the protests, with winning the elections," Lempart said.
Women's rights activists are concerned the ban could be the only proposal that goes to a commission based on the timing of the debates and the position of the parliament speaker Szymon Hołownia, who comes from a minority conservative political group called Third Way.
'Going above the mess in parliament'
Multiple activist groups presented an invoice to the government as the debate on Thursday was set to take place, saying that grassroots organisations have spent more than €11.5 million helping to provide abortion access to Polish residents.
The activists said that thousands of Polish women have used this network to access abortion pills.
The current law means that a woman can only have an abortion if her life is at risk or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.
There have been cases, however, of women dying as doctors waited to perform an abortion.
It's uncertain what will come next for the legislative proposals as conservative President Andrej Duda also holds veto power.
There were many watchers present outside the parliament, according to the Associated Press, with anti-abortion activists playing recordings that resembled church bells.
Lempart says activists will not wait and are bringing their fight to the EU level.
"We will be collecting 1 million signatures under just registered European Civic Initiative My Voice My Choice in seven countries so abortion is accessible in all of Europe. So we're going above all the mess happening in the Polish parliament.
ADVERTISEMENT"We will have abortion accessible in Europe above their heads and without their help," she said.
