Poland's Sejm passes two bills easing abortion ban, veto expected from president

Two bills pass the lower house

On Tuesday, 20 October, the Sejm approved two bills that loosen Poland's near-total abortion ban. The first partially decriminalises abortion carried out with a woman's consent and removes criminal liability for helping someone with a self-managed abortion. The second allows terminations where the foetus has a severe defect, a ground the Constitutional Tribunal declared unconstitutional in 2020. Both bills now go to the Senate. wPolityce reported that the partial decriminalisation bill passed with 217 votes in favour and 213 against, a margin Frankfurter Rundschau described as barely enough.

Abortion is currently legal in Poland only after a criminal act such as rape or incest, or in other narrow cases. The 2020 Tribunal ruling tightened rules that were already restrictive and set off protests that the Guardian described as the largest since the fall of communism. Those protests were later credited with helping Donald Tusk win power in 2023 on a promise to overhaul the law within 100 days. In 2025 Tusk backtracked on legalising abortion up to the 12th week, saying there was "simply no majority" for reform.

A veto looms over the bills

If the Senate approves the bills unchanged, Karol Nawrocki is expected to veto them, according to the German Catholic agency KNA as reported by Deutsche Welle. Frankfurter Rundschau noted that the governing coalition lacks the majority needed to override a veto. Since taking office in August 2025, Nawrocki has vetoed 45 laws, and the government calculated that those vetoes have cost the state about 8 billion zloty. Leah Hoctor of the Center for Reproductive Rights said the change would be limited, and the Legalna Aborcja initiative said none of the bills would help women who need an abortion now.

These bills represent a very small-scale change.

PSL splits on the vote

Urszula Pasławska, deputy leader of the PSL, said the partial decriminalisation bill restores the abortion compromise that existed before the 2020 ruling. She argued that many PiS deputies had apologised for that ruling and then voted against the compromise.

Many PiS deputies apologised for that ruling, but yesterday they swallowed their own tongues, because they voted against the abortion compromise that had functioned for 30 years.

Pasławska also said she saw a race on the right for the voters of Grzegorz Braun. wPolityce reported that 10 PSL deputies voted for the partial decriminalisation bill and 14 against, with PSL leader Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz among the opponents. Rzeczpospolita commentator Terlikowski argued that the party risks losing committed conservative voters without winning over voters on the left.

Protests and what comes next

Fundacja Widzialne called people onto the streets on Thursday, 22 October, and announced rallies in 27 cities, according to the Guardian. wPolityce reported that Strajk Kobiet first announced protests in 22 cities and later planned them in 28 cities on Thursday, demanding legal abortion up to the 12th week. The sequence of key dates from the 2020 ruling to this week's protests is shown below.

The next step is the Senate, and the bills then return to the president's desk for a decision.