“Morning-after pill”: President Duda asks Parliament to reconsider the change in the law
Photo: Rolf Vennenbernd/dpa
The change in the law should make it much easier to access the morning-after pill without a prescription in Poland. But conservative Polish President Andrzej Duda vetoed it on Friday. A statement from the presidency said that Duda had "referred the amendment to the pharmaceutical law to parliament with a request to reconsider it."
The president could not accept a law that would allow access to the morning-after pill "for children under 18 without medical supervision and bypassing the role and responsibility of parents," it said.
The Tusk government made a move in January to liberalize Poland's restrictive abortion law as a whole. Currently, abortions in Poland are only permitted in cases of rape or incest, or if the mother's life is in danger.
The parliament in Warsaw approved the proposed law on the morning-after pill at the end of February. Accordingly, the drug to prevent pregnancy should be available from the age of 15. In doing so, the MPs cleared the way for plans by Prime Minister Donald Tusk's pro-European government coalition to relax previous restrictions on the morning-after pill. The previous prescription requirement was introduced by the right-wing nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party as part of its conservative family policy. She ruled Poland from 2015 to December 2023.
The new government had expected Duda's veto and therefore announced in advance that it would be bypassed. Health Minister Izabela Leszczyna told radio station RMF FM on Wednesday that a regulation had been prepared allowing pharmacists to issue prescriptions for the pill. In order to prevent unwanted pregnancies, the drug should be made available in this way from May 1st.
pbe/AFP