The pro-abortion law was passed in 1993 while the parliament was controlled by the ex-Communist Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), but elections last September swept the pro-Catholic, pro-life Solidarity Election Alliance (AWS) into power again. AWS is seeking to return to the old law that allowed abortion only when there is serious danger to the life or health of the mother, when the pregnancy is the result of a crime, or when there is irreparable damage to the unborn child.
The 1993 law, which was further liberalized in 1996 to allow even more abortions, was declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Tribunal which said the amended law clashed with the guarantee of the right to life. The lower house of parliament can reject the tribunal ruling by a two-thirds majority, but that was unlikely to happen since only 164 members of the 460-seat house opposed it.