Polish President Andrzej Duda has vetoed a law that would make it easier for women to get the morning-after pill. Prime Minister Donald Tusk is trying to relax the rules on contraception, but is encountering conservative President Duda, who is still loyal to the previous government of the conservative nationalist party PiS.
Under the leadership of PiS, access to this form of contraception was severely limited in 2017. Tusk wants to reverse that decision and has a majority in the Sejm, the Polish parliament. In January, parliament passed a law that makes it possible to obtain the pill without a prescription from the age of 15.
Duda has now asked parliament with his veto to re-examine the law. He explains his refusal by pointing to the standards for the protection of children’s health. The president also refers to a petition signed by 30,000 people.
“It’s a shame that the president is once again turning against Polish women,” Katarzyna Lubnauer, Deputy Minister of Education, responded to X. Because the government expected the veto, it already gave pharmacists permission to write prescriptions for the pill.
As far as the WHO is concerned, emergency contraception should be “systematically included” in all national family planning programmes.
Tusk became prime minister of a pro-European coalition in December, and has since tried to reverse several PiS policies. Because PiS still holds many important positions, such as that of president, this is far from obvious.
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