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The Polish parliament has rejected a bill that would have liberalised Poland’s abortion law.
The legislation would have decriminalised helping a woman to obtain an unlawful abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy.
Under the current law, someone can be jailed for up to three years for doing so.
The legislation was supported by the majority of the ruling government coalition. However, it was defeated after the most conservative element of the coalition joined with the opposition to vote against it.
218 MPs voted against the bill, while 215 voted for it.
The Left (Lewica) party proposed the legislation last year, a party that makes up part of Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s coalition. Mr Tusk had announced yesterday that his Civic Platform (PO) party would vote in favour of the legislative change.
However, the Polish People’s Party (PSL), on the conservative end of the governing coalition, almost entirely voted against the bill, joining its votes with the opposition parties: the former ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, and the right-wing Confederation (Konfederacja) party.
Earlier this week, Poland’s conservative President Andrzej Duda said that he would veto the bill even if it was passed by parliament.
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