They come amid mass protests over the death of a pregnant woman in hospital, which many have blamed on last year’s introduction of a near-total ban on abortion. Some conservatives, however, have argued that the tragedy resulted from medical malpractice and was unrelated to the abortion law.
In the new poll – which was conducted on Friday by United Surveys for Wirtualna Polska, a leading news website – almost three quarters of respondents said that they want the current abortion law to be softened.
That includes 42.8% who would like to return to the situation before the October 2020 constitutional court ruling which introduced the near-total abortion ban. The decision outlawed terminations due to the diagnosis of birth defects, resulting in Poland having the EU’s most restrictive law apart from Malta’s.
Under the previous status quo – often called the “abortion compromise” in Poland, but which was already one of Europe’s toughest laws – terminations were allowed only if a pregnancy resulted from a crime (such as rape), if it endangered the mother’s life or health, or if birth defects were detected.
A further 31.1% of respondents said that they want abortion to be allowed on demand up to the 12th week of pregnancy. That would mean introducing a law more liberal than the previous status quo and more in line with other European countries.
Only 10.4% said that they do not want any changes to the current law, while 5.2% would like it to be restricted even further (which would involve banning abortion in cases of rape and/or a threat to the mother’s life). A further 10.5% said that they have no opinion.
Even among supporters of the national-conservative ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, which has supported restricting the abortion law, 28% want a return to the previous status quo and 14% favour abortion on demand. Just 17% are satisfied with the current law while 14% want it tightened further.
The findings conform with previous polling showing that the largest section of society favoured the pre-October 2020 “compromise”, while among the remainder there was much stronger support for liberalisation than further restriction. However, since the near-total ban was introduced, support for legal access to abortion has increased.