Sometimes you get what you voted for – Donald Tusk’s Poland seems to have understood all too well Brussels’ desire to include abortion in the Union’s charter of fundamental rights. A parliamentary debate began last week to ease the ‘almost’ ban now in force, quickly followed by a large street protest in Warsaw. Tusk’s road to change the country promises to be an uphill one, but not to difficult to walk

Poland’s ruling coalition has taken the first steps towards repealing the previous government’s abortion ban. In 2020, Poland’s Law and Justice party (PiS) banned virtually all abortions, dragging the country even further from EU norms on abortion law.

It was a decision that may have cost PiS the election as analysts say the current centrist coalition rode into power last year partly on a backlash from young and female voters. On Friday, four bills which would overturn the ban were put in front of Poland’s lower house and approved for further legislative work and discussion.

Their passage wouldn’t have been possible without Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s broad-based coalition – but there is likely to be further heated debate on the extent to which abortion should be legalised.

The conservative opposition leader, Jarosław Kaczyński, indicated he would be willing to support softening his own party’s support for a near-total abortion ban. Former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has said he thinks the ban was a “mistake”. 

In other abortion U-turn news: fellow conservative Donald Trump said Arizona’s supreme court had gone too far in outlawing abortion and said he wouldn’t support a federal ban – as he has previously indicated he would – ahead of the 2024 election.